On Saturday, May 27, Pastor Ezekiel Odero’s solicitors said that the Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) personnel had taken many things from the New Life Centre and Church.
The legal counsel representing Pastor Ezekiel claims that the goods included computer drives, holy water, handkerchiefs, and communication devices. Cliff Ombeta and Dunstan Omari are in charge of the legal team.
The confiscation took place when police searched the church as part of their investigation into Pastor Ezekiel’s case.
Ombeta and Omari acknowledged that goods had been seized by ATPU agents, who had said they needed to analyse them in Nairobi.
“The law enforcement personnel from ATPU stopped by the church on Tuesday to retrieve communication items, computer drives, holy water, and handkerchiefs, claiming that it was for reasons of specialist assessment,” said Ombeta.
The altercation was related to continuing inquiries into the relationship between Pastor Odero and the contentious preacher Paul Mackenzi, who is now in police jail.
On April 27, pastor Ezekiel of the New International Life Church in Kilifi was detained on suspicion of conspiring with another pastor, Paul Mackenzie.
Coast Regional Commissioner Onyancha announced the arrest at a news conference and said that Odero’s church was shut.
As a result of reports that killings have been happening on his property and being publicised by numerous media outlets, we detained Pastor Ezekiel Odero this morning.
” We also took action and shut down the prayer centre. We are advising and informing the public that the church has been shut down and that everything inside has been removed, ” she said.
According to a police report, Pastor Ezekiel Odero was arrested when a local mortuary in Kilifi County received a complaint that the pastor’s assistants had deposited five corpses at the facility.
The corpses were undocumented, according to sources present during the 8-hour questioning at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) office in Mombasa, which piqued police curiosity.
In response to the tip, police interrogated numerous morticians at various mortuaries close to the New Life International Church on separate occasions.
Police discovered a pattern during their trips to the mortuaries, whereby remains were reportedly dumped there by church authorities.
On May 8, Pastor Ezekiel Odero, in an additional instance, had a significant setback in his effort to stop the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) from investigating his financial accounts.
DCI agents were given access to sixteen of Pastor Ezekiel’s bank accounts by a decision made by Milimani Chief Magistrate Court.
Pastor Ezekiel’s accounts became the subject of a court request by Chief Inspector Martin Munene to look into what he said maybe unlawful activity.
Part of the decision said that it was “necessary and beneficial” to grant the applicant an injunction to look into the books of the bank and mobile money service accounts to provide the officer permission to view the books about multiple account numbers.