News 
Friday, April 8, 2005 

Renowned television actress Ashina Kibibi may have taken her life after her parents insisted on taking her to an exorcist against her will.

Investigations have established that on the day of her death, the Kiswahili soaps producer had asked to be taken to a doctor at Pandya Memorial Hospital, Mombasa. But her parents and brother thought otherwise and drove her straight to Mtwapa where the woman believed to exorcise evil spirits lives.

While they were waiting for Mrs Ashora Abdalla Ali in her house at Mtwapa, the prolific Kiswahili actress tricked her parents and brother and made her way to a thicket where she hanged herself. 

Family sources said the parents believed Ashina's chronic depression, which was threatening her life and acting career, was caused by jinis (evil spirits).

According to Kibibi's brother, Mr Ballon Kazungu Mweni, she complained of persistent headache and body pain prior to her death and wanted to be treated by a doctor. 

"Before the tragic journey, my sister had requested to be taken to Pandya Hospital for treatment. But my parents wanted her to try the traditional ways first," Mr Mweni said in an interview.

"Ashina did not believe in witchcraft – she must have been surprised to find herself in a traditional healer's house at Mtwapa," Mr Mweni, a trade unionist, said.

Although Mr Mweni could not speculate on the cause of his sister's depression, he said the family did not expect the producer of popular Kiswahili soap operas to commit suicide.

Mr Mweni's sentiments appeared to contradict those of close family members who have claimed that the actress may have been killed and a scene created to suggest she had committed suicide. 

Other sources said that before her death last Thursday, the actress had warned her parents that she would take her life. The sources said Kibibi's parents had confessed that they went to see the exorcist because they were concerned by her threat to commit suicide.

"They (parents) appeared troubled by the health of Ashina – they talked of how she had attempted to take her life on two occasions, said the source.

Speaking to Coast Express, the exorcist said she was not at home when Ashina and her parents came calling. She arrived two hours later to find the actress's body dangling from a mango tree.

She said Ashina had come to her clinic at 8am accompanied by her mother Sera, father Kazungu and brother Johnston Emmanuel Katana.

The exorcist added that if she had met Ashina, she "would certainly have assisted her".

"I have helped many people who turn to me – If I had a chance to meet Ashina, whom I had seen on television on many occasions, I would have cured her, Mrs Ali said outside her clinic at Mtwapa."

She claimed that government officials and prominent people from countries as far away as the Great Lakes region and the Middle East visit her clinic. 

"Those who saw the producer and actor of Tausi, Asali and Dunia before her death say she looked "troubled".

A close friend who lives in Mombasa said: "Ashina looked weak, confused and troubled by something."

The 36-year-old actress was reported to have been unwell before she left her base in the University of Maryland in America where she was pursuing further studies. She was in the US courtesy of the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship programme, which she was due to complete in two months' time. 

She arrived in Kenya on March 23 and stayed in Nairobi briefly. Then she travelled to Mombasa where she stayed with her parents in Magongo.

Born at Kakokeni, Malindi 36 years ago, Ms Kibibi attended Coast Girls High, Mombasa, before joining the University of Nairobi, where she studied linguistics and philosophy. 

In 1992, she pursued a masters degree in linguistics and was intending to do a doctoral degree in linguistics and literature. 

As she was laid to rest at her 1.5 acre farm in Kakoneni, Malindi, on April 3, her friends and admirers were left wondering what might have led her to take her life. Ashina was buried according to Muslim traditions. She was single and is said to have had properties in Nairobi and Malindi.