Pastor Ezekiel Odero’s 15 bank accounts were frozen for 30 days following a court order that was issued by the court on Monday the court on Monday.
This is after an application was given by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to have the accounts frozen pending investigations.
In an affidavit, the DCI claims Pastor Ezekiel of New Life Prayer Centre and Church was suspected of money laundering due to his links with Pastor Paul Mackenzie of the Good News International Church, who is being probed for allegedly luring members of his church to starve themselves to death in order to “meet Jesus”.
According to the detectives, Pastor Ezekiel’s bank accounts have been receiving huge transactions whose money is suspected to be proceeds of illicit cash from victims who were allegedly radicalized to sell their properties and gave pastor Mackenzie.
They asked the court to allow them access to several bank accounts at Equity Bank, Co-op Bank, KCB, and HFC Bank.
Police officer Martin Munene, who is attached at DCI, fears that the money held in the above accounts will be transferred if the court does not issue the orders to access the accounts.
“The investigations will enable the applicant to collate confirmatory evidence regarding the financial flow as per allegations,” reads the affidavit by Munene.
This follows after last week Ezekiel moved to the High Court in Mombasa seeking to bar the State from freezing the accounts.
That matter is coming up for a hearing on Tuesday.
The Pastor had argued that freezing his accounts will be infringing on his and his congregation’s freedom of worship while further noting that the threat to freeze his church’s bank accounts is part of an unconventional path the State has allegedly taken to frustrate his ministry.
“The operations of the church, including ongoing construction and development projects within the church premises, will stand paralyzed,” read court papers.
Lawyer Danstan Omari says that they are doing an application to have the orders vacated arguing that the State is on forum shopping, adding that the name of the magistrate in Milimani is not indicated in the orders.
By Jane Kibathi.
