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Court acquits televangelist Gilbert Deya in miracle babies saga
Gilbert Deya in a Nairobi court during the hearing of a case in which he was charged with stealing five children.
A Nairobi court has acquitted televangelist Gilbert Juma Deya in the child-trafficking and “miracle babies” scandal over lack of evidence.
Senior Principal Magistrate Robinson Ondieki freed the preacher after the prosecution failed to prove the accusations of stealing five children.
"After evaluation of the evidence adduced by 26 prosecution witnesses, 64 exhibits and the defence of Mr Deya, l find no evidence was adduced linking the accused person to the charges of child stealing. I therefore acquit him under Section 210 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC)," ruled the magistrate.
Bishop Deya had been charged with of stealing five children, all aged under 14 years, between 2002 and 2004 at Mountain View Estate, Nairobi. The Prosecution had alleged that the preacher committed the offence together with others not before court.
His trial in court commenced in August 2017 after he was extradited from the United Kingdom.
The court concurred with his defence that the prosecution did not table evidence to show that at the time he was abroad, he gave instruction to anybody to keep the five children in his house at Mountain View estate.
The ruling comes 11 years after another court in Kibera acquitted Bishop Deya's wife, Mary, from similar charges involving "miracle babies".
Ms Mary Deya was accused of procuring registration births of the five children in Grace Medical Clinic and Maternity Home and in New Gathecha Estate nursing and maternity home, which she alleged to be hers.
But she was however convicted for stealing a baby on September 10, 2005 at the Kenyatta National Hospital, and giving false information to Dr James Kiarie that she had given birth to the said child.
Pleading for the acquittal, Bishop Deya had fought the accusations saying that they were malicious and meant to tarnish his name as "a man of God".
The prosecution had alleged that the house where the children were found (House No. 226 Mountain View Estate Nairobi), was jointly owned by Bishop Deya and his wife Mary.
The prosecution also stated that it had demonstrated that the birth registration documents in respect to the five children produced in court indicated Bishop Deya as the father of the children.
“The birth registration of these five children were obtained fraudulently. Mr and Ms Deya were excluded biological parents of the five children,” said the Prosecution in the written arguments.
Among the Prosecution witnesses who testified in court was Lilian Kiamba; a police investigator attached Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and a registration officer in charge of registration of births and deaths in Nairobi. She testified on behalf of the Ministry of Health.
Ms Kiamba investigated the scandal together with four other officers.
They commenced investigations following a report in a local daily newspaper where an old couple was featured narrating how they had delivered miracle babies following prayers by Bishop Deya and his wife Mary. The preacher was operating the Gilbert Deya Ministries church.
"The investigations led the team to a house within Komarock Estate, Nairobi, where they traced the couple and 11 children aged below five years. The couple and the said children were detained by the police and blood samples of the children and the couple were thereafter extracted and forwarded to the Government Chemist for DNA analysis," testified Ms Kiamba.
She further testified that on August 19, 2004 and on the strength of the information received from the couple linking the Deyas', the investigation team went to Mountain View Estate House Number 226 which belonged to the preacher.
"Mary Deya was interviewed but denied there were any miracle babies in the house. She took the (investigating) team to a room where the team found one child and a lady who introduced herself as Miriam Nyeko, a Ugandan. However upon search, the team found nine children aged five years and below locked inside one of the rooms,” the officer narrated to court.
She further stated that Mary gave the investigation team 14 birth certificates for the children. The birth certificates showed that Mr Deya was the father of the children.
"The birth certificates were taken an exhibits and the ten children recovered and taken to Kabete Children home pending investigation," Kiamba told the court.
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The investigations aimed to establish the true biological parents of the ten children found in the house.
The 10 children were taken to Nairobi Children Home in Kabete where their blood samples were taken by Dr Moses Njue Gachoka and forwarded to the Government Chemist for DNA analysis.
Two of the children among the ten were found to be genuine children of Mary Deya and Gilbert Deya which was ascertained through DNA tests, the court heard.
DNA report dated April 14, 2005 concluded that Mr Deya and his wife Mary were excluded as the biological parents to five of the children.
"It is thus clear that the accused person was not the biological father of the five children the subject matter of this case. Therefore the accused person having harboured these children in his house he had intended to deprive their parents, guardians or lawful care or charge of the same," the Investigating officer told court.