Pregnant teen's face badly burnt in bizarre exorcism gone awry

A man performs a voodoo ritual in Curitiba May 21, 2010. A pregnant teenager's face was badly burnt by an exorcist in Nakuru Town on January 17, 2016. PHOTO | AFP

What you need to know:

  • The Standard Seven pupil received slightly over one per cent degree burns to her face and was responding well to treatment.
  • She was taken to Nakuru Level Five Hospital by good Samaritans who found her in her brother’s house.

A 13-year-old girl from Ponda Mali slum on the outskirts of Nakuru Town narrowly escaped death when members of a church burnt her face “in a bid to exorcise demons”.

The girl, whose face has been badly disfigured, was in for another shock when doctors discovered that she was one month pregnant.

She said one of her tormentors is responsible for the pregnancy.

“She was not aware that she was pregnant when she was brought here on Saturday afternoon. She was in great pain and we only discovered the pregnancy after conducting several tests,” a nurse at the hospital said.

The nurse said the girl, a Standard Seven pupil at a public school in Nakuru Town, received slightly over one per cent degree burns to her face and was responding well to treatment.

The girl, whose parents are in Siaya County, is lucky to be alive as she received severe burns on the face with the upper side of her right eye badly injured. 

She was taken to Nakuru Level Five Hospital by Good Samaritans, who found her in her brother’s house.

Recounting her painful ordeal to the Nation on Saturday, the girl said members of the Roho Mowar Church in the slum arrived at her brother’s house about 7.30pm.

“I was seated at home when Roho Mowar members knocked on the door and entered,” she said.

“They wrapped my head in a red piece of cloth and said they would pray to exorcise evil spirits in my body.”

The girl added that the church members arrived with paraffin.

“They poured it on my face and then lit a candle,” she said.

A few minutes later, her face was engulfed in flames.

“When I cried and told them that I was burning, they shouted and said those were demons being burnt from my body,” said the sobbing girl, who is the second last-born in a family of five.

She said the sister of the man who made her pregnant called Roho Mowar church members to conduct the prayers.

“I am not even a member of that church,” she told the Nation.