“We need to be able to vet the messages we are hearing from some preachers.”

“These are people who have misinterpreted and are abusing scripture rather than using them the right way,” said Calisto Odede, presiding bishop of the Pentecostal denomination, Christ Is The Answer Ministries.

“We need to be able to vet the messages we are hearing from some preachers.”

Efforts at regulation will likely run into stiff resistance however, with Odede saying on Monday that independent churches have previously rejected suggestions on self-monitoring from the National Council of Churches of Kenya.

Fifteen people, including Nthenge, are in custody over the Shakahola deaths.

Kenyan police have also arrested a popular televangelist and closed his church in 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.

The government has threatened to charge Nthenge with terrorism, but academic Akaranga expressed doubts about whether the gruesome saga would lead to a more robust approach to cults.

“So long as you are dancing and making noise, nobody cares.”