Court freezes Pastor Ezekiel's 15 bank accounts

The court on Monday issued an order freezing controversial pastor Ezekiel Odero’s 15 bank accounts for 30 days.

This follows an application 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”.

Detectives told the court that 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 radicalised 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.

According to police officer Martin Munene attached at DCI, they fear 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.

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 hearing on Tuesday.

Pastor Ezekiel 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 on-going 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.