Relief for embattled pastor Ezekiel Odero as bank accounts unfrozen

New Life International Church Pastor Ezekiel Odero.[Robert Menza, Standard]

Embattled pastor Ezekiel Odero is now free to access his frozen bank accounts after the 15 days issued by the court lapsed.

On Monday, May 22, the court confirmed that all the banks had complied with the order to allow investigation into 15 bank accounts linked to the pastor.

The freezing orders were placed on May 8 on his accounts in Cooperative, NCBA, Equity, KCB and HFC banks.

At the dock while being cross-examined by Lawyer Danstan Omari, Inspector Martin Munene told the court that from the documentation received none of the bank accounts is in the name of pastor Ezekiel.

He clarified that all the accounts were either for the church or the school.

Earlier, the DCI had asked the court to extend the orders for freezing the accounts to allow Safaricom to comply.

"The applicant cannot complete investigations in the absence of information sought from the 6th respondent -Safaricom," the court was told.

However, the officer said Safaricom had not complied with the court order as of Monday and wanted them (safaricom) to be summoned for not producing data relating to the SIM cards in question.

The matter will be mentioned on Tuesday, May 30.