ANOTHER KENYAN PASTOR ARRESTED OVER 'MASS KILLINGS'
NAIROBI - A Kenyan televangelist has been arrested after reports of the “mass killing of his followers,” the Interior minister said, as authorities investigated scores of other deaths linked to a religious cult from the same region.
Pastor Ezekiel Odero “is being processed to face criminal charges related to mass killing of his followers,” according to a statement by Kenya’s Interior Minister, Kithure Kindiki, who gave no details on how many deaths were linked to this case.
As news of Odero’s detention spread, officials said the death toll had now reached 103 in the separate cult investigation that has shocked the nation and prompted calls for a crackdown on religious fringe groups. Police were still exhuming bodies at a ranch owned by Pastor Paul Mackenzie, where he moved in 2019 after closing his church in Malindi. As part of the move, he reportedly sold his television channel to Odero. Kindiki made no comment on whether the cases were linked.
Officials had evacuated followers from Odero’s New Life Prayer Centre and Church in the small south-eastern town of Mavueni on the Indian Ocean coast, Kindiki said.
“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,” Kindiki posted on Twitter.
Odero - dressed in white robes and carrying a thick black book - did not respond to reporters’ questions as he was escorted into a police station by a uniformed officer.
Odero’s arrest was connected to “allegations of deaths that have been occurring at his premises and reported in various morgues or institutions,” regional official Rhoda Onyancha told reporters.