Tana River Senator Danson Mungatana has disputed allegations of presence of morgues and graves at New Life Prayer Centre and Church in Mavueni, Kilifi County.

This church belongs to Pastor Ezekiel Odero who was linked to the Shakahola massacre.

Senator Mungatana leads the Senate AdHoc committee tasked with investigating the alleged mass murders.

“We visited Pastor Ezekiel’s church. We saw school and restaurants, but we did not see a mortuary as alleged,” said Mungatana.

“It is a place where the distribution of power sources is stored. The alleged graveyard is actually a construction site,” he further added.

Ezekiel’s church shut down

Police shut down a branch of his New Life Prayer Centre church in Kagayu, Nyeri County on September 12, 2023.

This branch, which had been in operation for just two weeks, faced police intervention when at least 300 worshippers gathered for a church service.

According to lead preacher Martin David Manyasi, the police blocked the service, conducted a search of the church, and seized an undisclosed amount of money and offering envelopes.

The officers refused entry to the premises and demanded a gazette notice confirming the removal of Ezekiel’s church registration.

Pastor Ezekiel’s legal team regarded the closure as state harassment against their client.

Court suspends deregistration of Pastor Ezekiel’s church

On Tuesday, August 22, Pastor Ezekiel Odero obtained a court order suspending the directive to deregister his New Life Prayer Centre church.

This action came after the Registrar of Societies had issued a notice on August 18 to deregister Pastor Ezekiel’s church, along with four others.

Pastor Ezekiel Odero filed a fresh application at the High Court on August 21, withdrawing a previous application.

His legal team sought to prevent the Registrar of Societies from obstructing the operations of the New Life Prayer Centre and Church.

The Judge who issued the directive explained that he wanted to scrutinize whether due process had been followed in the deregistration of the church.

“Upon perusal of material placed before the court in support of the application, I am persuaded to exercise my discretion and allow the applicants to challenge the gazette notice dated August 18, 2023, whose purport is to deregister the society referred to as New Life Prayer Center and Church,” stated Justice Jairus Ngaah.