Gilbert Deya: Kenyan 'miracle babies' pastor acquitted of child trafficking

Basillioh Rukanga
BBC News
July 17, 2023

A controversial Kenyan televangelist, who claimed he created miraculous pregnancies, has been acquitted of child-trafficking charges due to insufficient evidence.


The prosecution failed to prove that Gilbert Deya stole five children two decades ago, a Kenyan magistrate said.

He had been accused of handing them to women struggling to become pregnant.

The self-styled pastor was extradited from the UK in 2017, after his decade-long legal battle to remain failed.

Concerns were first raised about the conduct of Mr Deya, who ran a church in London, in a BBC investigation in 2004.

Women experiencing difficulties conceiving who attended the Gilbert Deya Ministries church in Peckham, south-east London, were told they could have "miracle" babies.

But the babies were always "delivered" in backstreet clinics in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. The prosecution said the babies were stolen from poor Kenyan families.

Mr Deya later moved to Scotland, and was arrested in Edinburgh in 2006 under an international arrest warrant issued by Kenya.

In his ruling on Monday, magistrate Robison Ondieki said the prosecution had "failed to establish circumstantial evidence".

Speaking outside court where his supporters cheered him on, Mr Deya said that he had forgiven those who wanted to see him in jail.

"Today I'm acquitted of this kind of burden, a yoke on my shoulder… it has damaged my reputation," he told reporters, adding that it was "sad that I have been labelled as a child stealer".

"I'm grateful that I'm free. I'm now going to continue to proceed to the mission that Jesus gave to me on earth."

He hinted that he may seek to return to the UK.

In 2011, Mary Deya, Mr Deya's then wife, was jailed after being found guilty of stealing a baby from the main referral hospital in Kenya's capital Nairobi and falsely stating she had given birth to the baby.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66221990

Gilbert Deya: 'Miracle babies' pastor extradited to Kenya

Pastor Gilbert Deya is alleged to have told infertile women they
 could have "miracle babies"

BBC NEWS
August 4, 2017

The UK has extradited a self-styled Kenyan pastor, who claimed he created miraculous pregnancies, to Kenya to face child-trafficking charges.

Gilbert Deya's extradition came after he failed in his decade-long legal battle to remain in the UK.

He denied charges of stealing five children between 1999 and 2004 when he appeared in court in Nairobi.

Concerns were first raised about the conduct of Mr Deya, who ran a church in London, in a BBC investigation in 2004.

Infertile or post-menopausal women who attended the Gilbert Deya Ministries church in Peckham, south-east London, were told they could have "miracle" babies.

But the babies were always "delivered" in backstreet clinics in Nairobi, Kenya's capital.

Mr Deya later moved to Scotland, and was arrested in Edinburgh in 2006 under an international arrest warrant issued by Kenya.

His Gilbert Deya Ministries is being investigated by the UK Charity Commission for alleged mismanagement.

"Our statutory inquiry into Gilbert Deya Ministries is ongoing. We are currently considering the implication of Gilbert Deya's extradition on our investigation," the commission said in a statement.





Gilbert Deya: 'The Archbishop of Peckham'

• A former stonemason who moved to London from Kenya in the mid-90s
• Set up the Gilbert Deya Ministries as a registered charity, with African and Asian branches
• Known for his blend of charismatic, performance-style preaching
• Had income of £652,800 ($858,000) for the financial year ending December 2015
• Spent £609,300
• Described by UK Labour MP David Lammy as a "modern-day snake-oil salesman"
• Says he was consecrated as an Archbishop by a US evangelist in 1992

When the BBC asked Mr Deya during its 2014 investigation how he explained the births of children with DNA different to that of their alleged parents, the 65-year-old Mr Deya said: "The miracle babies which are happening in our ministry are beyond human imagination.

"It is not something I can say I can explain because they are of God and things of God cannot be explained by a human being."

Kenya's police spokesman Charles Owino told the BBC that Mr Deya had arrived in Nairobi aboard a Kenya Airways flight following his extradition.

Mr Deya had opposed his extradition, saying he feared being tortured and sentenced to death.

In 2007, his wife, Mary, was sentenced to two years in prison in Kenya after being convicted of stealing a baby.

In 2011, she was sentenced to three years in jail after being convicted of stealing another child.

Desperate women, some past the menopause and others who were infertile, were convinced that being prayed for by Mr Deya and travelling to Kenya would result in a child.

Once there, they were convinced by Mrs Deya and others that they were experiencing labour and taken to illegal clinics where they believed they had given birth.

But they were actually given babies which had been taken from local women.



http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40824267

Trust in the Aldi Mighty: We reveal that a FAKE Archbishop is flogging ‘miracle’ olive oil as a cure for cancer

BRIAN FLYNN, Investigations Editor, and LEE SORRELL

The Sun
January 24, 2016

Gilbert Deya

A FAKE "Archbishop" is flogging olive oil from Aldi as a wonder cure for cancer.

Gilbert Deya, 63, is also fleecing gullible church-goers with cash-for-miracles scams.

Incredibly, this is happening in 21st-century London.

Deya, who calls himself the Archbishop of Peckham, rakes in millions running dodgy evangelical churches in the UK.

This despite a ten-year battle to return him to his native Kenya to face baby-stealing charges.

Our two-month undercover investigation caught him and his pastors falsely selling olive oil from Aldi as a cure for cancer and HIV, and charging to perform "miracles" and to ensure infertile women conceive.

Horrified MP David Lammy last night branded Deya a "pernicious crook".

And the Charities Commission launched a probe in the wake of our investigation.

But the Home Office insisted it STILL cannot expel him five years after Home Secretary Theresa May signed off his extradition.

Our investigators posed as a husband and his cancer-hit wife to infiltrate Deya's church HQ in a deprived area of Peckham, South London.

His right-hand man Pastor Kamara assured them Deya's miracle oil – on sale for £5 in the church shop - would cure the killer disease if used on her food.

He handed them a badly-spelled leaflet detailing its "mystical powers", which include overcoming illness and debt.

Unaware he was being filmed, he promised: "Don't use any oil except this oil...and the cancer will just disappear. The healing will take place."

Deya claims the oil is special because he has personally "anointed" it.

He was charged £5 for the 750ml bottle of Solesta extra virgin olive oil, which has an Aldi logo on the label.

The same oil cost £1.99 in the supermarket.

Another of his lieutenants Pastor Gabriel added: "The oil is not any oil, as the Bishop normally prays with it.

"So this oil heals thousands of people here. Thousands of people...minimum thousand people been healed of every kind of diseases."

He described how one who used the oil to treat HIV was "cured completely".

Our couple were also taken into a room where a pastor performed a disturbing ritual to "cure" our investigator.

Rubbing "anointed" cooking oil into her chest, the minister assured her: "This is the start of your miracle.

"You could be here now and tomorrow you go to the doctor and when the doctor checks you find that that cancer is gone."

During the lengthy ceremony, the pastor pushed our girl to the ground while shouting: "Yes you snake that have put cancer in her blood.

"Every tainted witchcraft has to go. Yes, go out of her now."

One church leaflet lists Deya's miracles, including curing a broken leg in one day by prayer.

A worshipper supposedly gave thanks by buying ten of the preacher's books only to miraculously find all his debts then vanished and his post-menopausal wife was pregnant.

The leaflet also claims a car crash victim's broken arm "healed in 10 minutes".

When our couple asked Deya if he could help them conceive, he summoned four children he claimed were born to the same mother at six-monthly intervals thanks to his miracle prayers.

Pointing at each in turn, he said: "After she was born, six months he was born, six months he was born, six months he was born. The mother is here."

Our man asked: "So you helped their mother give birth every six months?"

Despite this scientific impossibility, Deya replied: "In the name of Jesus, everybody knows about this."

His son Amos then requested a £700 "sacrifice" up front to help our couple conceive a "miracle" baby, suggesting they could sell their car to fund further "sacrifices".

Our man told Amos: "We have been told categorically by medical people that our chances of having children are zero."

Yet Amos insisted infertility would not stop his wife passing a pregnancy "blue" test if the money was paid.

Before pocketing the "sacrifice", Amos asked our reporter whether she had ever had sex with a spirit while asleep.

He explained: "There are a lot of women who are barren because of that."

Amos rubbed supermarket oil on the couple's head and went on: "We can take this journey and rush with it to its conclusive end, which is going to be fantastic.

"Then the day she wakes up and does the blue test that I have prayed for - that particular day, that blue test, you don't go to Nando's and celebrate, you run to the house of God.

"You say, 'Man of God, this is my third sacrifice [donation].'

"I tell you, it is now happening. On the day you're carrying your baby, you can sell all your cars, I don't care.

"You say, 'Lord now I thank you. I have a son or a baby.'"

The pastor warned he expected a huge donation when the couple had their baby.

He added: "At that time, I would like you to do an amazing sacrifice.

"You can come to the altar, whether it's two thousand or a thousand or five thousands, and say, 'Lord, I say thank you.'"

Deya also urged followers who fall sick to call him BEFORE an ambulance or medic.

He told his spellbound congregation: "If you are part of our ministry, before you call an ambulance when you are sick call us first because if it is a spiritual problem we take care of it before you go to see the GP.

"We have seen many miracles happen - healing of cancer, fibroids and many things beyond the medication of the doctor."

The showman was also filmed pulling one woman on crutches from the congregation and instantly "curing" her of multiple sclerosis so she could walk off stage unaided.

Sermons ended with donation envelopes and requests for bank details.

Accounts show Deya's hope-filled cocktail of "miracles" and immaculate conceptions is reaping a fortune.

He enjoys a jetset lifestyle, posing alongside a personalised helicopter.

GDM claims to have 34,000 followers in churches in Manchester, Liverpool, Reading and Crawley.

Accounts show the registered charity banked £865,620 in donations in 2014, with another £1million in savings and £2million in properties.

Deya's church blew £80,589 running Internet TV and radio stations, £41,000 on cars and £74,593 paying guest preachers.

By contrast, just £29,430 went on poverty relief.

Although showman Deya leads the church, he was removed from the charity's board in 2012 amid concerns at how it was being run.

Deya was first arrested for extradition by Scotland Yard in 2006.

He is accused of stealing five children from Kenyan slums after claiming followers gave birth "through the power of prayer."

DNA tests proved they were not the natural mums.

At Deya's Nairobi home, police found 10 children with no genetic connection to the family.

Wife Mary was jailed but he fled to the UK.

In 2007 Deya's human rights appeal against extradition was dismissed and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith ordered his removal.

In 2011 her successor Theresa May again signed it off and the Home Office confirmed: "He has exhausted all avenues of appeal against extradition."

Yet incredibly Deya is STILL preying on Britain's vulnerable.

MP David Lammy, who began campaigning for Deya's deportation after a couple in his constituency returned from Kenya with a "miracle baby", demanded urgent action.

He said: "For over a decade I've been pressing for Gilbert Deya to face justice for his child trafficking and cruel exploitation of vulnerable people.

"This pernicious crook is still running rings around the Home Secretary and the Police. We need action."

Although Deya leads the church, he was removed from the board of the charity in 2012 amid concerns at how it was being run.

Deya refused to comment on the Sun's investigation, insisting he did not talk to "evil liars who are confused".

The Home Office last night said: "We continue to consider representations being made by Mr Deya's legal team. It would be inappropriate to comment further."

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/6884150/Fake-archbishop-flogs-Aldi-olive-oil-as-miracle-cure.html

Kenya: 'Agents of Devil Lied' About Me, Says Deya

Njoki Chege
AllAfrica
January 26, 2016

Controversial Kenyan evangelist Gilbert Deya has denied claims by a British newspaper that he has been selling 'anointed' olive oil to cure cancer and HIV.

Speaking to the Nation on phone from the UK on Tuesday, Mr Deya confirmed that there were two undercover journalists who attended his church for two months, but said the two were not truthful.

"We have never, ever said we heal people of cancer and HIV with olive oil," said a calm Mr Deya on the line from London. "That is manipulation of information. And that is why when they contacted me for the story, I said I don't talk to evil people."

Mr Deya accused the British media of being biased, calling the two reporters "agents of the devil" who deliberately failed to report when he was acquitted of rape charges in 2014.

GOODS IN THE SHOP

According to a story published by The Sun in London, Mr Deya sells the extra-virgin olive oil in his church shop at inflated prices compared to local supermarkets because he claims it has healing properties.

But the preacher Tuesday said his outlet is a private business away from the church that not only sells olive oil, but also Christian reading material, snacks and books.

"We do not sell the olive oil because we claim it has healing powers; we sell it as part of the goods in the shop. Olive oil does not heal cancer or HIV, we pray for all sicknesses" he said.

London press also reported that Mr Deya claims to pray for infertile women to conceive and give birth to miracle babies, an allegation that the preacher yesterday denied.

"There is nowhere I said that I make infertile women give birth. The women I minister to are the ones saying that they were barren and after I prayed for them, they can now conceive. If a miracle happened to the people I minister to, then they are the ones giving the evidence and the testimony, not me."

The Kenyan government requested for Mr Deya's extradition in 2007 so that he could answer charges of baby theft in Kenya. He has battled this extradition for close to a decade now which he claimed has cost him over Sh150 million (£1 million).

Mr Deya said that the Kenyan authorities had refused to withdraw evidence against him despite the fact that he was acquitted.

THIS MAN, DEYA

Way before he made his way into newspaper headlines and television reports, Pastor Gilbert Juma Deya ran a small church of about 300 congregants in Kibera's Laini Saba area.

He had started out with the Salvation of Jesus Christ Church in 1976, which boasted a few esteemed members, among them Private Hezekiah Ochuka, who would later lead a failed coup in 1982.

According to his biography, Deya and the Miracle Babies, written by Mr Gakuru Macharia in 2009, Mr Deya's meteoric rise can be credited to his sitting on giants' shoulders in the form of the relationships he built with top pastors, who soon inducted him to the world of evangelism.

Among those he associated with was Kisumu-based preacher Maurice Ouma Arao, who prides himself as Mr Deya's spiritual father, starting the early 1980s.

His biography states that he was born on February 2, 1952 to Samuel Oyanda and Monica Nono Deya in Juja, Kiambu District, where his father worked in the sisal plantations.

Deya's ancestral home is in Sakwa, Bondo District.

He got his first name, Gilbert, when, during his baptism, a young and cheeky Deya asked the local AIC vicar: "What is your name, Sir?" Taken aback, the vicar responded: "Gilbert".

"That's the name I want," said the young Deya.

He started his education at Nyagunda Primary School at the age of 13, but only because his mother had appealed to the local chief to sell her husband's cattle to raise money for school fees.

His father, Mr Samuel Oyanda, had refused to send his son to school until the chief intervened.

Deya says he barely lasted a month before a bully beat him up and that discouraged him from going back to school.

He went to live with his big sister in Nandi Hills, Rift Valley, where he started begging.

When his sister discovered what he was up to, she gave him a thrashing and sent him to live with his maternal grandmother, who seemed to have good influence on the young Deya as he returned to school and even learnt basic business acumen by accompanying her to the market where she was a hawker.

He later joined Kambare High School and sat his final exams in 1970.

He says he got saved at the age of 15 years, in 1967, when he accompanied his mother to a local crusade.

Mr Deya, a man of many controversies, has also wined and dined with the high and mighty.

On July 4, 2002, for instance, the Queen of England attended an event organised by Mr Deya as part of his church's Jubilee Celebrations.

In the run up to the 2002 elections, Mr Deya claimed, the principals of the National Rainbow Coalition visited him in London for prayers.

Also in 2007, just before the elections, Mr Deya says Cord leader Raila Odinga went to his church in the UK. "I want to stress here that Raila came for prayers and consultations with me," he said.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201601270172.html