By Ebi Kesiena
Kenya on Thursday said that one of the country’s highest-profile pastors would face charges over the “mass killing of his followers” just days after the discovery of dozens of bodies linked to another church.
Head of the New Life Prayer Centre and Church, Ezekiel Odero, “has been arrested and is being processed to face criminal charges related to the mass killing of his followers,” Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said in a statement.
“The said church has been shut down. The over 100 people who were holed up at the premises have been evacuated and will be required to record statements,” he added.
Odero’s arrest comes on the heels of an ongoing investigation into Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, the cult leader accused of the deaths of 98 people linked to his church.
Police have not linked the two cases, and authorities have not provided further details about the nature of the allegations against Odero or his church.
Odero, dressed in his signature all-white garb and clutching a Bible, was transferred from the coastal town of Malindi where his church is headquartered to the regional police headquarters in Mombasa for questioning.
A wealthy televangelist who draws huge crowds his church south of Malindi can seat 40,000, Odero claims that “holy” scraps of cloth sold at his mega-rallies can heal sickness.
However, the government had promised a crackdown on fringe religious denominations after the discovery of dozens of bodies over the past week on a property near Malindi belonging to Nthenge.
