Big day for Pastor Ezekiel in case where DCI froze his 15 bank accounts

Embattled pastor of New Life Ministry Ezekiel Odero on Wednesday, May 10 filed an urgent application at Milimani Law Courts seeking to discharge orders freezing his bank account.

The application is coming up today (Thursday, May 11) for inter-parties hearing before Chief Magistrate Court for him to give a determination whether the orders were lawfully issued.

In a swift move however, Pastor Ezekiel's lawyers  Danstan Omari and Samson Nyaberi have dismissed the gag order over the church for non compliance of tax.

The lawyer says the church is compliant in tax payment until 30th June 2023.

In any case, the lawyers argue that under the constitution,  churches are exempted from tax payment and there is no law that requires religious organisations to pay tax.

The lawyers argued that officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), through the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP), while obtaining a freezing order failed to disclose that a similar application had been filed in Shanzu Law Court and orders sought to close the church's bank account were declined.

They said nondisclosure before Nairobi magistrate court that they had filed similar application with concurrent jurisdiction is serious breach of the law.

Police are linking Pastor Ezekiel to the Shakahola 'cult' deaths in Magarini Sub-County, Kilifi County.

The televangelist is under investigation with police arguing that some of the bodies that are being exhumed in Shakahola were ferried there from his church in Mavueni.