Esther Arunga arrested over cult - The Star

By Isaac Ongiri

Police arrested former KTN presenter Esther Arunga at 2 am yesterday morning. Efforts were being made to release her into her mother's custody as she was not feeling well.

Esther was arrested with seven other people and two underage girls at the house on the Runda estate used by the Finger of God church. Among those arrested were saxophonist Joseph Hellon, Apostle of the Finger of God church, and Quincy Timberlake, the suspected mastermind behind the Benny Hinn emails.

"We have Esther and three others here in custody to investigate cases reported to us. From here we shall take them to the CID headquarters for them to record statements," Kasarani OCPD Leonard Omollo said at Muthaiga Police Station yesterday.

"All are Kenyans," said Omollo confirming none of them was a foreigner.

Esther and the two young girls spent 12 hours in the Muthaiga police cells while Hellon, Quincy and" other church members were held at Gigiri. Around 2 pm they were all taken to CID head-quarters where they recorded statements with head of Serious Crimes Unit Henry Ndombi.

Clad in a denim jeans, white sandals, a red long sleeved T-shirt, black jacket and spectacles, a composed Esther was led to a waiting green Land Rover from Muthaiga to be driven to CID headquarters.

Her parents, relatives and friends flocked the Muthaiga police station but did not speak to the media. Her mother was in a pensive mood. Hellon's wife also visited the station.

Lawyer Harun Ndubi said Esther and the others had been arrested for belonging to an unlawful society. He expressed optimism that his clients including Esther would be released on police bond as they wait to appear before court.

Meanwhile, new information is emerging about Quincy who was due to marry Esther after she broke off her engagement to Wilson Malaba two weeks ago.

In December Quincy joined the Runda residence of the Finger of God, claiming to have just returned from the UK. Around that time, Hellon started receiving emails from Pastor Benny Hinn who he recognises as his spiritual leader.

Last week the Benny Hinn ministries, based in California, told the Star they have no knowledge of Hellon, Quincy Timberlake or Finger of God.

The emails from 'Hinn' encouraged Hellon to use Quincy as your "bridgestone to the future" saying that "Quincy is the 123rd brightest personality on earth as per God's wisdom is concerned".

'Hinn' said "I enforced a spirit into him to handle Esther, the heartbroken girl since Esther has been secretly liking him for a long time".

'Hinn' also advised Hellon to run for President with Esther as his running mate, and to disband the church and fast for 100 days after the police started investigating the Finger of God two weeks ago.

Other sources said that Quincy told Hellon that Pepsi had cancelled its annual 60 million pound (Sh7.8 billion) sponsorship deal with Tiger Woods and convinced Hellon that he could be the replacement.

Reportedly Quincy convinced Hellon and Esther that her fiance Wilson was a Freemason and intended to make her a human sacrifice on Valentine's Day. She then cancelled the marriage and 'Hinn' advised that she should then marry Quincy.

Wilson has denied that he is a mason or that he would harm Esther.

Yesterday The Star went to a house at Komarock in Eastlands and met a woman who claimed to be the wife of Quincy. Salome Gideon said she had two children with Quincy with whom she had been living for 11 years.

She was shocked to hear that 'Hinn' had ordered him to marry Esther. She said she had not spoken to him for one week. She tried calling him today but his phone was off.

Salome said that she had not met Esther but she knew she lived at Hellon's house. She said Hellon was a childhood friend of Quincy whom she said had travelled to Britain in the past. She refused to reveal Quincy's original name.

The wannabe musician has worked under different personas.

Dance star Kanda King said he knew him as a Congolese by the stage name Dezato.

"I recruited him to my band in 2004 and he was my keyboard player for a year and a half before I fired him," Kanda said.

He described Quincy, who now claims to be half South African and half Kenyan, as "very sharp. Everything I talked about he knew."

"He was a very strange guy. He told me that he would hook up our band with a UK tour contract. What I came to find out eventually was that he had created emails and was communicating with me as the hotel manager organising the said UK tours," Kanda said.

"I housed him throughout that period," Kanda said. "But I had to throw him out and fire him from the band when I found out that he had told my wife I was being unfaithful when we go for
gigs"

A cyber cafe owner, who asked to remain anonymous, formed a friendship with Quincy and sold him a computer and a modem for his home.

Quincy is said to have been living in the UK with a British passport and to have returned to Kenya in December after contacting Hellon on Facebook.

However the cyber cafe owner say he met Quincy in August 2009.

"To us he was half-cast with a Congolese mum and a Luo dad but he never talked Dholuo. He tried an email scam on my friend where he posed as a UK visa official but we traced back the email to the IP address of the computer he was using. I confronted him with the information in November. Since then he hasn't been back to the cyber cafe," the man said.