PASTOR ARRESTED AMID PROBE INTO CULT-LIKE DEATHS
The preacher, who is already in custody, has denied wrongdoing.
By Our Reporter
NAIROBI: Kenyan police have arrested a popular televangelist and closed his church on the coast as investigations continue into a religious cult that’s been linked to the deaths of nearly 100 people.
Pastor Ezekiel Odero, who is famed for drawing huge crowds at his functions, was arrested on Thursday hours after the police inspected a funeral home near his New Life International Church in Mavueni, Kilifi County.
The police said they had established that morgue attendants had been collecting bodies at the church premises.
“This morning we have arrested Pastor Ezekiel Odero on allegations of the deaths that have been occurring at his premises,” Coast regional commissioner Rhoda Onyancha told reporters.
The preacher has not responded to the allegations.
Police are also investigating his alleged relationship to controversial cult-like preacher Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, who is said to have told followers to starve themselves in order to “meet Jesus”.
Kenyan authorities have already recovered 95 bodies of people suspected to have died of starvation and were buried in shallow graves in an 800-acre forest near his church on the coast. Many of the victims were children.
The preacher, who is already in custody, has denied wrongdoing.
Source: BBC News
