“Archbishop” Gilbert Deya, a pastor from Kenya was extradited from the UK to his home country earlier this month. He will appear in court in Kenya for allegations of child trafficking.
Joseph Boinett, the Inspector General of Police confirmed that Deya had arrived at Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport this morning just before 5am. A video of his arrival shows the pastor smiling but looking uncomfortable. He ignored a question from one journalist who asked him whether he was happy to be home.
Considering he has been fighting his extradition since 2007, it’s unlikely that his answer to this question would have been “yes!”. An investigation by the BBC in 2004 brought to light the conduct of Deya and his promise to childless couples that they could have “miracle” babies.
Between 1999 and 2004, 5 such couples received their “miracle babies”, all of which were delivered in clinics tucked away in the backstreets of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. In one of the cases, DNA samples of the ‘parents’ and the baby did not match, and when Deya was questioned about this he said, “The miracle babies which are happening in our ministry are beyond human imagination… Things of God cannot be explained by a human being.”
His wife, Mary Deya was sentenced to 3 years in prison in January 2014 at Lang’ata Women’s Prison in Nairobi for stealing a baby at Kenyatta National Hospital in 2005.
Deya was arrested in the UK in 2006 and in 2007 the Home Secretary at the time, Jacqui Smith, requested his extradition but Deya appealed, claiming that he would be treated inhumanely in Kenyan prisons. In 2011 Home Secretary Theresa May sent Lord David Ramsbotham to inspect the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in Nairobi and he ruled that Deya’s claims about the prison conditions were totally unfounded. It would be another 6 years before Deya was finally extradited to face the charges of 5 count of child abduction.
“Dear friends, don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot do any more to you after that. But I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell. Yes, he’s the one to fear.” Luke 12:4-5
Louise Carter
