Court Orders Reopening of Pastor Ezekiel Church

Wednesday, May 3, 2023 –A court sitting in Mombasa has ordered re-opening of Pastor Ezekiel Odero’s church following the controversy that has been surrounding it.

The court hearing the controversy surrounding Odero’s New Life International Church has today Wednesday May 3 decided that the premises should be reopened citing insufficient investigation data.

The Mombasa High Court, on Wednesday, May 3, ordered the police boss – Inspector General IG Japhet Koome – to immediately reopen the New Life International Church.

Ezekiel, through his lawyers, led by Danstan Omari and Cliff Ombetta, moved to the High Court, accusing the State of infringing on the faithful’s right to worship; what is against the law.

New Life International Church was closed on Thursday, April 27, after police arrested the founder, Pastor Ezekiel, and charged him with terrorism, indoctrination of the faithful and other charges related to mass killings.

He would, shortly, be linked to the Paul Mackenzie’s Shakahola mass burial of bodies of their faithful.

Recently, Interior Cabinet Secretary Prof Kithure Kindiki linked Ezekiel and Mackenzie to the more than 100 deaths and murder cases in Malindi’s Shakahola Forest.

In an autopsy report released yesterday May 2, it was established that, as the victims died of starvation, some died of murder as well.

Chief Government Pathologist Dr. Johansen Oduor also found out that, one of them, a child, was hit on the head with a blunt object, another one was strangled, while two adults died of Asphyxia.

He also confirmed having seen rope marks on the neck of one of the victims as well as some broken bones in the neck.

“We are sure that this person, a child, was strangled to death,” Dr. Oduor assertively stated

In the medical results by the pathologist, it was also revealed that two of the victims were smothered to death.