State revokes registration of Mackenzie, Pastor Ezekiel's churches
Cult leader Paul Mackenzie (left) during an interview with Nation.Africa in Kilifi County on March 24, 2023, and preacher Ezekiel Odero, speaking to Nation journalists on December 6, 2022.
The government has sent a 30-day cancellation notice to the New Life Church of Pastor Ezekiel Odero and Good News International ministries of Paul Mackenzie, Registrar of Societies Jane Joram has told the Senate Ad hoc committee investigating the Shakahola deaths.
The two churches have been under investigation for the Shakahola cult in which more than 100 people starved themselves so they could go to heaven. Others, post-mortems revealed, were strangled and suffocated. They were all buried in mass graves.
There are 40,000 registered religious organisations in Kenya.
