The British wife of an evangelical pastor who claims to help infertile women have "miracle babies" has been charged with stealing a child from a hospital in Kenya.
Mary Deya appeared in court in Nairobi Tuesday with another British woman and three other people who claim to have had babies through the power of prayers directed by Gilbert Deya, the charismatic leader of Gilbert Deya Ministries, a rapidly-expanding church based in south London.
Kenyan police Tuesday confirmed they are investigating allegations that the self-styled archbishop's church, which boasts 36,000 members in Britain, is a front for a child smuggling ring that steals the "miracle babies" from impoverished mothers in the backstreets of the Kenyan capital.
Jaspher Ombati, a police spokesman, said that if Deya was found to be working with his wife they would follow "normal extradition procedures" to bring the evangelical pastor to Kenya.
"We are casting our net wide," Ombati said. "We want to come to the bottom of this issue of miracle babies."
According to the police, women travel from Britain to Africa and appear to give birth to babies in slum clinics in Nairobi. Concerns have been raised over the authenticity of the "miracles" by the fact that the children's DNA, where tested by the Kenyan authorities, has not matched their mothers.
In a statement, Deya, whose church is a registered charity and boasts a new ?1 million (US$1.82 million) headquarters in Peckham, south London, yesterday insisted he and his family were innocent and the allegation that they had "stolen our baby Naomi" was untrue.
"Naomi was a twin with the late Jeremiah and we have proof of their birth in the video camera," he said. "The allegation is a lie, an assassination attempt and it has been fabricated to destroy the name of my ministry, which is well-known and respected worldwide."
Deya claims to use prayer to exorcise demons from women in his ministry who are unable to conceive naturally. According to the pastor, British doctors in his congregation have confirmed the miracle births are genuine. "The miracles which God has performed through me are of God, they are beyond human understanding and no man can explain them except God," he said.
A second British woman, Miriam Nyeko, and Rose Kiserem, a Kenyan, also appeared in the chief magistrate's court in Kenya alongside Deya's wife. All three are charged with stealing an unnamed child from the Pumwani maternity hospital, Nairobi, in February this year.
Nyeko said she gave birth to her third child, Daniel, in Kenya last month with help from Deya. Her husband, Charles, said the birth was a "miracle from God."
Deya said he had presented pictures and a videotape of Nyeko giving birth to the British embassy in Nairobi with an application for travel documents so the couple could bring their "miracle baby" back to Britain. But the embassy has refused to grant the boy a passport until DNA tests, also demanded by the Kenyan authorities, are carried out.
Also appearing in court were Michael and Eddah Odera, a Kenyan couple who describe how they gave birth to "miracle babies" on Deya's Web site. Charged with abducting a teenage boy from a farm 150km from Nairobi in 2000, the couple were found to have 11 children aged between five months and 12 years living in their home in Kenya.
Odera said his 56-year-old wife gave birth to the first of their miracle babies after Deya prophesied a birth and laid her hand on his wife's stomach. They named their son Daniel Gilbert, after Deya. According to the pastor, none of Odera's subsequent pregnancies have been detected by modern technology.
The Church of England and the UK's Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology have called for an investigation into the claims involving members of the church, one of Britain's fastest growing evangelical groups, which has branches in Europe, Africa and Asia.
A spokeswoman for Scotland Yard in London said: "We received an allegation in October of last year. The matter was referred to the immigration services for further investigation and we are assisting them with their inquiries."
A spokesman for the UK Home Office said he could not comment on any immigration service investigation for fear of jeopardizing its work.
Deya's wife and four others are due to reappear in court on Nov. 3.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of