Kenyan Bishop lands in London court over dodgy Covid-19 cure

In the Lavender Hill magistrates’ court, Bishop Climate Wiseman, the head of the Kingdom Church in South London, is charged with “fraud and unfair commercial charges.”

According to the Evening Standard, the magistrate hearing the case failed to provide a decision, claiming that the issue was one of religious freedom.

The case has been remanded to the Inner London Crown Court, with the next hearing scheduled on September 13.

Bishop Wiseman has been under investigation since April of last year for allegedly marketing the “Covid-19 cure” oil to his congregation.

The oil, labeled Plague Protection Divine Oil, costs around €91 for a bottle.

According to sources in the media, the oil is created from a combination of cedar wood and hyssop, a mint family garden herb.

Apart from the religious lessons he shares on the blog, Bishop Climate Ministries in Kenya, a Facebook page affiliated to his primary church, also contains a series of website links offering various types of anointing oil.

There are no reviews on the page, and its physical location is likewise unknown. When his story went viral last year, he informed a British news agency that he had sold roughly 1,000 kits at the time.

“By coating yourself with the divine plague protection oil and wearing the scarlet yarn on your body, you can be rescued from the coronavirus pandemic,” he said on his website, which has since been removed following criticism.

“That is why, if you haven’t already, I strongly advise you to obtain your divine plague protection package as soon as possible!”

Covid-19 had been labeled a global epidemic by the World Health Organization barely a month before.

The wind of Covid-19 misinformation had already begun to blow at the time, and many had fallen victim to all kinds of lies out of desperation.

Bishop Wiseman, on the other hand, persisted in selling the oil despite the fact that he had had no scientific authorisation from health regulatory authorities and was under investigation.

He went ahead and marketed his “divine oil” on London buses in January of this year. His ad was up until the 21st of February.

“In Heaven, there is a God, and His name is Yahweh! “There Is a Prophet in London, His Name Is Bishop Climate,” said the advertisement, which included a photograph of him.

No Covid-19 medicine has been licensed for use by any national health authority anywhere in the world, including Kenya’s Pharmacy and Poisons Board.

Vaccines are the sole pharmaceutical protection available in Kenya and around the world, and eight of them have been approved for emergency use.

Everyone is still at danger of contracting Covid-19 if they do not follow the Health Ministry’s non-pharmaceutical measures, such as wearing a face mask, social separation, and handwashing.

A vaccine’s purpose is to reduce the severity of the disease and the need for hospitalization if someone becomes infected.

As a result, Bishop Wiseman’s claim that “as you apply this oil, together with a specific red yarn, every coronavirus and any other fatal item will pass over you” is untrue.

Hi oil isn’t the only thing that’s been suggested as a lifesaver for Covid-19.

An story published by Opera News last year, which has since been removed from the internet and can only be found in archives, claimed that Filipino experts had developed a coconut oil that could cure Covid-19.

The assertions were disproved by the fact-checking website Pesa Check, which said they were fake.