Ezekiel church on verge of closure as government accuses him of non-tax compliance
Government accuses Ezekiel church of non-tax compliance amid investigations on the Shakahola massacre
Government accuses Ezekiel church of non-tax compliance amid investigations on the Shakahola massacre.
Churches of controversial preachers Ezekiel Odero and Paul Mackenzie are facing closure after the Registrar of Societies wrote a show-cause letter to the two.
Good News International Church and New Life Prayer Centre churches have received cancellation notices from the State due to their activities.
The government has requested that Makenzie’s Good News International church provide justification as to why its registration should not be revoked, according to AG Justin Muturi through the registrar of societies.
The AG’s office claims that although the preacher Odero’s church complied with all requirements at the time of registration, it has recently neglected to file tax returns even though it did so in the past.
“We (registrar’s office) only have offices in 14 regions. If we were in Kilifi may we would have noticed what was happening,” he said.
AG Muturi told the Senate that both churches, Good News International and New Life Prayer Centre are registered religious organisations.
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The two are among the 40,000 faith-based registered religious organizations in Kenya.
They are registered under the Societies Act which was enacted in 1968.
In total, there are about 100,000 registered societies in the country.
He made the disclosures on Wednesday during a meeting with the senate ad-hoc committee probing deaths in Shakahola, Kilifi County.
Muturi said that the Act gives conditions for a group to be registered as a society.
“There is nothing that can limit the registration of the societies safe for the inability to comply with Section of the Act,” he said.
The AG informed the committee chaired by Danson Mungatana that Paul Makenzie’s Good News International Church has complied with all the requirements including filing tax returns.
The church was registered in September 2010.
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