Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung'aro has asked government not to victimise all pastors on the basis of the Shakahola massacre where over 100 people died.
Speaking on Saturday during a burial ceremony at Chonyi in Kilifi County, Mung'aro claimed the arrest of Pastor Ezekiel Odero in relation to the Shakahola incident is meant to shield the real culprits.
"And even if he has a problem, his church is not in the forest, his church is right here by the road side. If he has a problem, how come you never saw it until you found out Mackenzie had killed people?" he posed.
The governor said Pastor Ezekiel is well known for his philanthropy and has helped children go to school and distributed food to the starving.
He said he has come out to publicly defend the preacher because he knows he is a clean man who is being targeted unfairly.
"When he took over 100 students and paid their full school fees for a whole four years, didn't you see that? So the hypocrisy and treachery that Mackenzie was doing should not be a cause for all churches to be subjected to unjust treatment."
"Mlishindwa kumshika wakati akiua watu, wachaneni na mapastor ambao wanafanya kazi ya Mungu kwa imani kwa sababu leo ni Ezekiel kesho watakuja kushika wewe wa Pentecostal, kesho wa kiangiliakana kwa sababau wanataka kuchanganya watu ijulikane wanachunguza," he said.
(They were unable to arrest Mackenzie when he was killing people, let preachers who are doing God's work faithfully be because today it's Ezekiel, tomorrow they will arrest a Pentecost, the other day an Anglican because they want to confuse people and prove that they are investigating)
Pastor Paul Mackenzie of Good News International Church has been accused of being behind the Shakahola deaths by way of indoctrinating his followers to starve to death.
At least 112 bodies have so far been exhumed from dozens of shallow mass graves with autopsy results showing that some of the victims may have been strangled or suffocated to death.
President William Ruto has since formed a Commission of Inquiry to investigate activities of the cultic deaths which have shocked the country.
Mung'aro, however said, it's premature for the commission to start its work before the exhumation process is concluded.
"After the postmortem is concluded on the 112 bodies, let the teams go back and excavate all the other graves that have been identified. After we are done with all that and establish how many people died, it's when the commission can investigate," he said.
"We hujajua hesabu unataka kuchunguza, unataka kuchunguza nini? he asked.
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