Court declines to lift order freezing Pastor Ezekiel's bank accounts
Pastor Ezekiel Odero at his New Life Prayer Centre and Church in Mavueni, Kilifi County, on May 7, 2023.
An order to freeze bank accounts belonging to Pastor Ezekiel Odero of New Life Prayer Centre and Church in Kilifi County will remain in force, after a court dismissed an application seeking to suspend it.
Mombasa Presiding Judge Olga Sewe dismissed all the applications filed by Pastor Odero, only allowing the one granting his followers access to his church in Mavueni.
The judge termed the pastor's prayers to suspend freezing of his bank accounts and quashing proceedings against him in the Milimani court as misconceived and untenable.
“The application dated May 8, 2023, being misconceived, is hereby struck out,” said the judge.
The judge also dismissed Mr Odero’s prayer seeking reinstatement of his World Evangelism TV channel, which would have quashed a directive by the Communication Authority of Kenya suspending the frequency of the station.
According to the judge, the suspension of the frequency is yet to occur and that Pastor Odero was only invited to show cause why the suspension should not be effected.
According to the judge, Mr Odero should have moved to the High Court in Nairobi, which has supervisory role over a magistrate court in Milimani.
The judge noted that the man of the cloth did not provide adequate reasons to enable the court to issue the orders he was seeking.
"It is settled that conservatory orders should be granted on the inherent merit of a case, bearing in mind the public interest, constitutional values and proportionate magnitudes and priority level attributable to the relevant case," said the judge.
For conservatory orders to issue, the judge said an applicant must satisfy that he or she must have a prima facie case with a likelihood of success, it must be shown that the petition could be rendered nugatory and the public interest aspect.
"General policy of the law is that courts must not act in futility. I am not satisfied that the petitioner has proved his case to warrant issuance of the orders. The application is therefore dismissed,” Judge Sewe said.
The pastor, popularly known as Pastor Ezekiel, and his followers have, however, been allowed to worship freely at their church without interruption.
The court has also refused to call the file containing the proceedings before the Milimani court for quashing.
In his documents seeking suspension of the order freezing his accounts, Pastor Ezekiel, who is under investigation for various offences including genocide, alleged persecution by the state.
