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Two lawyers representing pastor Ezekiel Odero of New Life Prayer Centre and Church yesterday stormed out of a public participation exercise called by the taskforce formed by President William Ruto to review the legal and regulation framework governing religious organisations after they were denied a chance to give their views.

Lawyers Cliff Ombeta and Danstan Omari claimed their decision to walk out of the meeting held at Juwaba Social Hall in Kilifi town was prompted by the way they were mishandled by the taskforce officials.

Omari accused the taskforce of harbouring a hidden agenda against pastor Ezekiel.

“We have been here since 9:00 am and nobody has allowed us to put our views across and when we found out that we could not be allowed to air our views, we sought to record the proceedings but again we were denied, so we feel there is some malice targeting our client,” said Omari.

Public hearings

He threatened to move to court and block the taskforce from gathering views from the public if they are not allowed to represent their client in the next public participation meeting.

Collecting views

“We are really shocked about the manner the taskforce is collecting views. We are ready to seek legal redress including going to court to stop the taskforce from carrying out its operation if it will continue being biased,” he said.

Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have linked the televangelist preacher to controversial pastor Paul Makenzie of the Good News International Church over indoctrinating followers that has caused the deaths of more than 300 people.

Ombeta wondered whether the taskforce will carry its duties in line with the constitution.

The taskforce’s chairperson Rev Mutava Musyimi (pictured) however dismissed the lawyers’ claims saying that not everyone who turned up for the hearings got a chance to speak.

“I want to thank the people of Kilifi for turning up in large numbers. This is a very important forum but I want to make it clear that not everybody who raised his or her hands was given a chance to speak,” said Musyimi.