Pastor Ezekiel Odero aired illegal content on a television station owned by controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie of Goodnews International Ministries, senators were told on Monday.
Communications Authority (CA) Director General Ezra Chiloba revealed the details to the Senate Ad hoc Committee on the Proliferation of Religious Organisations that Odero aired the content from January to April 2023.
Chiloba told senators Odero, the head of Newlife Prayer Center and Church, aired programmes that demonstrated exorcism during the watershed.
“Given the fact that Times TV aired content that demonstrated exorcisms when children are likely to be watching (watershed period), we concluded that there was a violation of guidelines on good taste and decency,” he said.
Chiloba was quick to point out that Times TV did not feature any teachings of Mackenzie from January to April 2023.
“Mackenzie’s teachings were not aired on Times TV when we started our investigations. We believe he stopped airing his teachings on the TV way back in 2020,” he said.
He noted that CA issued a notice of violations of Times TV on April 27, 2023, for airing inappropriate content during watershed (05: 00am -10:00 pm) and other licence conditions.
This was the second time the station was issued with a notice of violation, the first one having been issued on September 20, 2020.
Senators led by committee chair Danson Mungatana questioned why Odero opted to air his preaching on Mackenzie’s TV yet he had his own.
Newlife Communications Limited, owned by Odero was issued with its own licence on June 18, 2021, to broadcast as World Evangelism TV.
“Even so, Newlife Communications continued to air its content on Times TV,” Chiloba said.
On May 4, the court released Odero on a cash bail of Sh1.5 million and a bond of Sh3 million with the same surety amount.
The court wondered how freeing Pastor Odero would have interfered with the ongoing postmortem exercise on Shakahola victims.
He was ordered to report to a police station once a week or as required by State.
Good News Media was licenced by CA on September 15, 2015, to provide Free-to-Air television broadcasting services.
“Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and Shadrack Musau Mutiso are the directors of Good News Media each with 50 per cent shareholding,” Chiloba told senators.
Bodies of followers of Pastor Mackenzie’s Goodnews International Ministries have been found in shallow graves in the forest in what is being investigated as mass murder.
More than 300 bodies have so far been exhumed from shallow graves in the forest since the horrific cultic occurrences came to light on April 14.
Mackenzie has been accused of brainwashing the victims into starving to death on the belief that they would meet Jesus Christ.
Chiloba told the committee that there are 109 broadcasters carrying programming which is primarily religious.
“Notably, there is no licensing category for religious broadcasting stations. Therefore, broadcast stations carrying out religious programmes as their main genre are licensed either as commercial or community broadcasters,” he said.
Two lawyers, George Kariuki and Elisha Komora, who were representing Mackenzie and his co-accused have since withdrawn their services in the case before the Shanzu Law Courts.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, they said the withdrawal was due to frustration from the state in handling the case against their clients.