Nairobi - Kenyan police have arrested 86 people in connection with the burning of 11 elderly people who were accused of being witches, a police spokesman said on Thursday. "They are facing charges of murder, robbery and arson and we have strong evidence on five of the suspects," police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told Deutsche Presse-Agenur dpa.
"Some property stolen from the houses of the so-called witches were found in the suspects' possession."
A mob set fire to eight women and three men, all of them over 80, in the western Kisii district last week, believing them to be witches. The huts of the suspected witches were also burned.
Local villagers justified the attack by saying they had found the victims names in the minutes of a "witches' meeting," which listed the next targets for bewitching, in a primary school.
Kiraithe said that the suspects could face anything from seven years in prison to the death penalty, depending on which charges were proven.
He also said another 22 people were arrested on Thursday, but were subsequently released.
Belief in witchcraft is widespread across the region and burnings are not unheard of. However, such a mass burning is rare.
Many villagers sympathized with the burnings, saying that as the law did not punish witchcraft, they were forced to protect themselves with this form of summary justice.
Kiraithe said that 21 of those arrested were already on police wanted lists for being part of a criminal gang.
