The New Life Church and Center head pastor, Ezekeil Odero, is now a household name in Kenya and beyond thanks to the recent controversies that brought him to the news headlines. Before these controversial issues, he was equally known for his powerful sermons and mass crowd he pulled with his preachings. The various miracles he performed and the healings he did that made his name to spread wide and far.
He was born on 13th August 1981 in Ngodhe Island in Rusinga, Suba North Sub County, Homa Bay County. Ezekiel’s father was a fisherman while his mother a peasant farmer. He also revealed that his grandfather Daniel Odero was a former Kenya Wildlife Service warden.
Young Pastor Ezekiel found himself fishing since it was a common thing with boys his age in the village. This affected his result in KCPE when he sat for the exams at Ngodhe Island Primary School in 1994 where he scored 210 marks out of the total 700. However, Pastor Ezekiel was the best pupil that year.
He then went to his maternal grandfather in Seme Sub County, Kisumu County where he decided to start again from class seven at Lieye Primary School that same year . He did his KCPE for the second time in 1996 scoring 398 out of the total 700.
After this, Pastor Ezekiel was admitted at Miwani High School in Muhoroni Sub county in 1997. Pastor Ezekiel sat his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination in the year 2000 and scored a mean grade of C.
He used his ability and talent of playing keyboard in the church where he also doubled as choir leader. This helped him be able to get some money to use for upkeep. He learnt the art of playing keyboard and singing while serving as a member of SDA in Seme.
Pastor Ezekiel lenrolled at Mombasa Polytechnic which is today known as the Technical University of Mombasa in 2005, to study diploma in chemical engineering but his grades were too low to do the course prompting him to change to a diploma in chemical processing technolog. He dropped out of college in 2006 due to lack of school fees.
Ezekiel met his wife Pastor Sarah in Kongowea the same year 2006 and they dated for a short time before they got married the following year. Together, they started preaching in Majaoni, Mombasa County, around that same year when they met. The two also sold items at Kongowea Market to earn a living.
When they started, they did not have a building to use as church and so they just preached in open field but later the church grew and through members they got money to put up a worship building in Majaoni. After 15 years in Majaoni, Pastor Odero purchased a bigger piece of land to accommodate more worshippers in Mavueni Kilifi county.
One of the largest churches in the nation, New Life Church Mavueni in Kilifi is situated on six and a half acres and has a seating capacity of 45,000 people. In addition, Pastor Ezekiel built a four-story building that can house 64 families in the property. It offers bedsitters as well as one- and two-bedroom apartments for our staff.
An international school that opened its doors this year, a petrol station, a supermarket, two hotels and guest rooms under construction, a TV station, a massive poultry project, and a restaurant are among the many developments on his 65-acre tract of property.
Pastor Ezekiel has also bought a another plot of property to build a university that he expects will open its doors in less than five years.
