In an early victory for Pastor Ezekiel Odero, a Mombasa County court in Shanzu has granted police permission to jail the televangelist for seven days while rejecting the prosecution’s request to retain him for thirty.
Pastor Odero was implicated alongside Paul Mackenzie who was accused of brainwashing his members to starve to death as a means of seeing Jesus quickly.
The police will now keep him in custody at the Mombasa Port Police Station, and they intend to present him in court once more this week on Thursday.
Additionally, the court retroactively began his detention on April 27, the day of his arrest.
Pastor Ezekiel submitted an affidavit to prevent the Shanzu court from ruling on the police’s request to hold him for 30 days. A legal team that includes Cliff Ombeta and Danstan Omari is representing Pastor Ezekiel.
On the basis that he would be denied justice if the court upheld the police application, he requested a rehearing.
“There is a pressing need to arrest the delivery of the ruling set for today so that the court can equally consider the written affidavit of the respondent in response to the numerous accusations against him as a person and the ministry he leads,” his lawyers Ombeta and Omari said on Tuesday.
The police affidavit submitted by George Muriuki, in the opinion of the attorneys, was done so in “bad faith” and represents “an ugly endeavour to unlawfully seek the limitation of Pastor Ezekiel’s right to liberty without justification.”
Additionally, they claimed that the state’s accusations are “a wicked attempt to scandalise Pastor Ezekiel’s name by forging a link between him and Kilifi cult leader Paul Mackenzie because of a prior business transaction that failed.”
“Unless this court arrests the delivery of its ruling on whether or not there is a reason to detain Pastor Ezekiel for 30 days, and considers his written affidavit in rebuttal of falsehoods contained in the police affidavit, there will be a miscarriage of justice,” the advocates said.