A Kenyan farmer has demolished his kitchen wall after his wife's claim to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary drew thousands of pilgrims to their home in the village of Getare, Kisii county, southwestern Kenya. Charles Onsombi returned from an overnight trip to Mombasa to find his property besieged by worshippers, after his wife Mary said an image resembling a veiled, praying woman had formed in the soot on their kitchen wall while she was cooking. The story went viral, sparking a mass pilgrimage that required a police presence and left Mr Onsombi, a devout Catholic himself, unable to reclaim his home.

Thousands of visitors travelled hundreds of miles, some from as far as Sirare near the Tanzanian border and Homa Bay on Lake Victoria, arriving by motorbike, taxi and bus, with pastors bringing their congregations to preach at the site. While some pilgrims reported seeing nothing unusual, others insisted they could clearly make out the Virgin Mary's face, and calls grew for a church to be built there. Mr Onsombi, 65, suggested the widely shared image was likely AI-generated and bore little resemblance to the actual wall; after the crowds persisted into Sunday night, he smashed the wall with a hoe and later brandished a machete to warn off further visitors, declaring there was no image of the Virgin Mary left to see.