The Exorcism of Kennedy Ife

What if a sore throat turned into the feeling that something was crawling around inside of you? Then, leading to terrible mood swings, insomnia, and strange voices?

In August of 2016, this was Kennedy Ife’s life. As Kennedy’s symptoms and behavior intensified, his family took matters into their own hands – which led to a tragic, botched exorcism. 

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What would you do if your sibling said it felt like something was crawling in their throat?

Would you hold a three-day exorcism to heal them?

Does demon possession show up as a normal illness at first?

What is up, Bizarros?! This week we are diving into the tragic tale of the Botched Exorcism of Kennedy Ife.

The Kennedy Ife Exorcism

This happened in 2016 in Enfield, North London, England.

26-year-old Kennedy Ife was a successful IT consultant and lived with his relatively wealthy family.

That included his mother, Josephine, his father, Kenneth Ife, and his brothers Roy, Harry, Colin, Samuel, and Daniel.

According to reports, they were a well-liked and friendly family in the neighborhood.

In August of 2016, Kennedy start telling his family that his throat was hurting.

At this point in time, it was considered no big deal – essentially just a sore throat. We’ve all been there.

That was not the case for Kennedy. He ended up going to the doctor because, as Kennedy put it, it wasn’t a typical sore throat.

It actually felt like something was crawling around in his throat.

Creepy, right?

When they visited the doctor, they didn’t find anything strange or unusual.

Very shortly after the doctor visited, the throat pain persisted, and Kennedy began displaying uncharacteristic mood swings.

These sudden outbursts would come against his family and friends, seemingly out of nowhere.

This transitioned to other ailments, including breathing problems and stomach pains.

Then, his day-to-day life began deteriorating. His attendance at his IT Consultant job began falling to the wayside.

In addition to skipping work, he also wasn’t eating much and started rapidly losing weight.

His family started taking notice of this extreme behavior, behavior that was very much unlike what they considered normal Kennedy.

His father chalked it up to birds in the walls. No, I’m just kidding, and if you’re new here, that’s an inside joke.

No, his father Kenneth thought that due to his sore throat, he was suffering from a lack of sleep, causing Kennedy to become sleep deprived and irritable, and that was just seeping into his daily life.

So, everything only escalated after Kennedy’s father proclaimed to his family that he just believed Kennedy needed more sleep.

While sitting in his room, hunched over, his siblings reported to their parents that they found Kennedy quietly talking to himself, sometimes even arguing with himself.

What was even creepier was that there are multiple voices. Some were Kennedy’s voice, some were clearly Kennedy putting on what seemed a different voice, but others they couldn’t explain.

Concerned turned into worried and fearful pretty quickly.

Kennedy cursed at his parents more and more and would have tantrums where he would break items in the house or throw his food on the floor.

The 26-year-old Kennedy began displaying the emotional responses of a toddler, and his lashing out only began.

He started becoming pale and sickly.

When trying to figure out what was wrong and how they could help, Kennedy told his family that he could hear voices in his head and that there was a python slithering around inside of him.

At one point, one of Kennedy’s brothers was standing in the hallway in his boxer briefs.

He seemed to have a dazed, faraway look on his face, and his hand was inside his boxers.

When his brother asked if he was okay, he started mumbling incoherently and then said he wanted to cut off his own penis.

Then he started mentioning the mark of the beast and 666.

He broke down, started crying, and prayed for God to forgive him.

On a different day, Kennedy was lying in his bed when he told one of his brothers that there was a seed in his stomach, which was growing into a writhing, evil snake inside of his body.

Shortly after these encounters, the family knew that something had to be done.

They had already tried the physician route with his throat, so instead, the family decided to turn to their local minister.

So, they had to their local minister, named Andrew. He was a church volunteer at Jesus Sanctuary Ministries.

He prayed for Kennedy along with two other ministers named Brother Pete and Brother Emeka.

Here is a quote from Andrew on his initial reaction to everything with Kennedy.

“When I arrived at church, I was informed that we had been instructed to attend the address of Sister Jo (Josephine Ife) to pray for Kennedy.

Together we arrived at Sister Jo’s house at 10:59 pm. Colin opened the door. We were ushered into the living room.

I saw Kennedy lying down. He had a mobile phone in his hand. He seemed to be typing something on his phone, texting someone.

I said, “Hi”. He said, “Hi.” He looked me directly in the eyes. He looked unwell. He looked tired.’

As we began praying, Kennedy’s father walked into the room with a man and a woman from a different church. I believed he was a pastor, but I had never seen him before.

Sister Jo asked if we could let the man take over. He prayed for God to keep Kennedy and heal him.

I felt quite angry that we had been instructed to come. After they left, we continued to sit and pray. Kennedy sat up when we went to leave.

He looked to me like he had a fever. He was not as bright as he had seemed when I met him in the past.”

Despite hours of prayer and m multiple sessions, it seemed to have little to no impact on Kennedy’s state.

His anger and violence only increased.

He threatened to attack his mother and bite his father, Kenneth.

This was the final straw, especially for Kenneth. He believed his son was, in fact, possessed by a demon.

Since the doctor did no good and taking him to a local minister seemed futile, Kenneth took matters into his own hands.

His cure for Kennedy was restraint and consistent prayer.

Here is a quote from Kennedy’s brother, Colin:

“It’s clear that thing was in him, what we believed was a demon because it was not natural.

It was clearly trying to kill him. We had to restrain him for himself.

It was clear if we didn’t restrain him, he could have tried to harm people in our family.”

As you can see, it’s getting pretty intense. So, how did they restrain him?

They overpowered Kennedy and placed him on his bed.

They used cable ties, rope, and handcuffs. He yelled and screamed. He barked and growled like an animal.

And for three entire days, 72 hours, this is how Kennedy lived his life.

The family spent hours reciting prayers over his body, hoping this makeshift exorcism would cure him of the demonic entity inside of him.

Slowly, Kennedy’s strength left him little by little. He became delirious and incredibly dehydrated.

His breathing problems also intensified.

On the third day, Kennedy experienced a seizure, and his family called paramedics.

Naturally, they were a little shocked by what they saw – with Kennedy being completely tied up.

But, they were even more shocked by the circumstances of the situation – Kennedy was lying there dead, and his family was trying to resurrect him by chanting and shouting prayers over his body.

They were singing, and Colin had his arms out in front of him and screaming, “Kennedy, I command you to rise in the name of Jesus.”

They were also chanting, “We thank you because his soul will be returned from the power of the grave. We thank you because his spirit has returned to himself. God, you have returned his spirit back into the body you gave him.”

The paramedics took swift action and released Kennedy’s body from the restraints.

It was discovered that cardiac arrest was the official cause of death.

The paramedics also noted that he had marks all over his body, including bruises, scratches, and even bite marks.

Kenneth and the four brothers also had minor injuries.

When the police investigated the home, they discovered a note in Kennedy’s mother’s room, Josephine, which read:

“If you feel your son is under a spell, pick up earth and throw it to north, south, east, west for four days. After, there will be an encounter.”

Not long after the police investigated the home, the family was arrested on charges of manslaughter, false imprisonment, and causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult.

During the trial, the prosecutor, Tom Little, was quoted as saying:

“His own family decided that because he had become and remained unwell, he should be restrained with cable ties, rope, and handcuffs.

The 999 call that was eventually made for expert assistance was too late.

The family put misguided religious beliefs about this young man being possessed by a demon or evil spirits before the obvious and common sense conclusion that he needed help and did not need to be restrained.

Whether this was some form of exorcism will be a matter for you in due course. In short, the Ife family took the law into their own hands.

The paramedics were told that for the last three days, Kennedy had been behaving abnormally and had been violent and aggressive.

Colin states that by August 18, he looked weak and complained about a seed in his stomach. He stated that Kennedy believed that he had a demon inside his body waiting to kill him.

The family stated that they had been required to restrain Kennedy physically. He subsequently developed breathing difficulties, and as a result, they called the emergency services.

They had put misguided religious beliefs about this young man being possessed by a demon or evil spirits before the obvious and common sense conclusion that he needed help and did not need to be restrained.”

Kenneth stayed firm during the trial and claimed that they did everything in the best interest of Kennedy and that they had to restrain him for his own good.

He told jurors that his sons took shifts watching Kennedy and were given permission from Kenneth to use overwhelming force if necessary.

He also refuted that any association with cults or secret societies played any part in how they behaved with Kennedy.

Prosecutors painted it as a medieval torture session, pointing out that Kennedy had been restrained for close to 72 hours and treated like an “animal” or “detainee.”

After a four-day jury deliberation, the entire family was cleared of all charges.

Was Kennedy Ife Possessed?

What do you think, Bizarros? 

Was it a botched exorcism that cost Kennedy his life?

Or was it the strain of being possessed that caused Kennedy’s heart to give out eventually?

Let us know in the comments.