Ghosts Of Kobura

The Ghosts Of Kore-Kobura

Across the country in Nyando District, stories of ghosts and haunted places abound, especially in Kore and Kobura.

Kobura location borders the partly stalled Ahero Rice Irrigation Scheme on the Kisumu-Nairobi highway. A four-kilometre stretch on the Ahero-Lela road is widely believed to be haunted by ghosts. On this stretch, many grisly road accidents have been witnessed between Korowe trading centre and Lela Secondary School.

A resident of the area, Mark Ojwang’ Nyabange, says the accident jinx was caused by the deaths of an old woman and a child who were run over by a vehicle many years ago. The residents believe the large number of accidents are caused by the dead woman’s ghost, which keeps coming back to confuse motorists.

Villagers who go to assist accident victims claim to have been told by the drivers that they had seen a ghostly old lady cross the highway driving a herd of cattle just before the accident. Elsewhere, about two kilometres from the Nairobi highway towards Kore village, a ghost is said to haunt a bridge. It is claimed that many residents of the area, including a young man known as Joseph Omondi, have fallen victim to the ghost at the bridge.

Omondi recalls one night sometime back when he set out at night from his home near K’otieno Odongo village to visit his relatives in Kore. An architecture student at a Nairobi-based college, Omondi says when he approached the bridge he met an old woman clad in a buibui who requested for assistance.

"She pleaded for help to cross the bridge and I obliged, but by the time I crossed the bridge she had vanished," he said.

Villagers say the ghost often greets people in Dholuo: "Amosi swaya! Amosi swaya! (Warm greetings! Warm greetings!)." Additional sources Here