On Monday, the court issued an order to freeze pastor Ezekiel’s 15 bank accounts for 30 days.

This follows an application filed by the DCI to have the accounts frozen pending investigations.

In a legal statement, the DCI claims Pastor Ezekiel of The New Life Prayer Centre and Church was suspected of money laundering due to his connections with Pastor Paul Mackenzie of the Good News International Church, who is under probe for allegedly telling his church members  to starve themselves to death in order to meet Jesus.

Detectives told the court that Pastor Ezekiel’s accounts have been receiving huge transactions whose money is suspected to be proceeds of illicit cash from the Shakahola incident.

DCI asked the court to allow them access to several bank accounts at Equity Bank, Co-op Bank, KCB and HFC bank.

According to police officer Martin Munene, they fear that the money held in the above accounts will be transferred if the court does not issue the orders to access the accounts.

Frozen Accounts

Last Week, Ezekiel moved to the High Court in Mombasa seeking to bar the State from freezing the accounts.

The matter will be heard on Tuesday.

Pastor Ezekiel argues that freezing his accounts will be infringing on his and his congregation’s freedom of worship while further noting that the threat to freeze his account’s is part of an unconventional path the state has taken.

“The operation of the church, including on-going construction and development projects witin the church premises, will stand paralyzed,” the court papers read.

Ezekiel’s lawyer says that they are doing an application to have the orders vacated arguing that the state is on forum shopping, adding that the name of the magistrate in Milimani is not mentioned in the orders.

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