Kenyan police have 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.
Police are also investigating his alleged relationship to a cult-like controversial 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 buried in shallow graves, at a 800-acre forest near his church in the coast. Many of the victims were children.
The preacher, who is already in custody, has denied wrongdoing.