Cult in Kenya: an influential pastor suspected of being linked to the “Shakahola massacre”

2023-04-29 04:12:20

Did he lead over a hundred people to their deaths to meet Jesus? Ezekiel Odero, one of the most influential Protestant pastors in Kenya is suspected of being linked to the “Shakahola massacre”, a case involving the discovery of more than a hundred bodies in a forest in the south-east of the country.

The head of the “New Life Prayer Center and Church” appeared in court on Friday, the day after his arrest. The prosecution requested that he be kept in detention for an additional 30 days to allow the progress of the investigations.

According to a court document, the famous televangelist is under investigation for “murder”, “assisted suicide”, “kidnapping”, “radicalization”, “crimes against humanity”, “cruelty against children”, “fraud and laundering money”, among others. This arrest follows the imprisonment of another pastor, Paul Mackenzie Nthenge, accused of having pushed his followers to fast until death “to meet Jesus”.

An evangelist known to power?

More than 30 mass graves have so far been discovered in the Shakahola forest, about 80 kilometers from the coastal town of Malindi where Ezekiel Odero was based. According to a still provisional report, at least 109 people died in this “massacre”. But all of them might not be members of Pastor Mackenzie’s “International Good News Church”.

“There is credible information linking the exhumed bodies (…) at Shakahola” with “several innocent and vulnerable followers (of the Odero church) who are said to have died,” says the Mombasa prosecutor’s office. “The police established that several murders took place in the premises of the Ministry of New Life” in the locality of Mavueni, not far from Malindi.

The investigators also want to verify information according to which “after the death of the innocent and vulnerable worshipers (of Odero), their bodies were kept in a private morgue (…) before being transported and buried in the forest of Shakahola “.

A former fisherman who became a “pastor” fifteen years ago, Ezekiel Odero is known throughout Kenya. His YouTube channel has half a million subscribers and he used to draw crowds to his church in Mavueni, which can hold up to 40,000 people. The wife of Vice President Rigathi Gachagua even appeared by his side in December during one of his “crusades” (giant rally) at the Kasarani stadium in the capital Nairobi.