Televangelist Ezekiel Odero back at the pulpit amid Shakahola massacre probe

The preacher was released on Thursday on a Ksh.3 million bond and one surety, or a Ksh.1.5 million cash bail, as part of the investigation into the Shakahola massacre.

Pastor Ezekiel strode into church on Sunday, defying a verbal order issued by Coast Regional Coordinator Rhoda Onyancha during his arrest.

According to the Daily Nation, police attempted to blockade worshippers who arrived at the preacher's 300-acre prayer centre as early as 5 a.m. on Sunday.

Lawyers for the televangelist, Danstan Omari and Cliff Ombeta, said there was no court order preventing Ezekiel from holding the church service.

"The compound hosts different businesses so it was illegal to barricade the gate. We have asked police to let worshippers in. They had no option but to let them in,"  Omari was quoted by the Daily Nation as saying.

Videos shared online showed the church packed to the brim as worshippers engaged in worship. 

Ezekiel Odero, a wealthy televangelist who boasts a huge following, is being investigated on a raft of charges including murder, aiding suicide, abduction, radicalization, crimes against humanity, child cruelty, fraud and money laundering.

Prosecutors accuse Odero of links to cult leader Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, who is in custody facing terrorism charges over the deaths of more than 100 people, many of them children, in what has been dubbed the "Shakahola forest massacre".

Mackenzie, the head of the Good News International Church, is alleged to have incited his followers to starve to death in order to "meet Jesus" in a case that has deeply shocked Kenyans.

A total of 109 people have so far been confirmed dead in the Shakahola forest case, the majority of them children.

Autopsies carried out so far on about 40 of the bodies unearthed in the forest inland from Malindi found that while starvation appeared to be the main cause of death, some of the victims were strangled, beaten or suffocated.

Prosecutors have said in court documents that they have credible information linking the corpses exhumed at Shakahola to the deaths of several of Odero's "innocent and vulnerable followers".

Police are also investigating information that the bodies were kept in a privately-run morgue before being transported and buried in the forest, according to the documents.

Prosecutors have also claimed that Odero and Mackenzie share a "history of business investments" including a television station used to pass "radicalised messages" to followers.

In a court filing earlier this week, Odero said he wanted to "strongly disassociate" himself from Mackenzie and disagreed with his teachings.