Queen and the miracle babies bishop

Sunday Mercury, UK/October 24, 2004
By Fionnuala Bourke

The full story of how the Queen was tricked into meeting a self-styled Archbishop wanted for baby smuggling can be revealed by the Sunday Mercury today.

Kenyan Police are seeking to extradite Gilbert Deya, whose controversial church has three branches in the Midlands.

The Archbishop has been accused of running a baby smuggling racket where children are “miraculously born” in Africa to sterile women and then transported back to Britain.

His son Amos, a self-styled Pastor who runs the Birmingham branch of the Gilbert Deya Ministries, was also present.

A high-level church source told the Sunday Mercury how the 2002 meeting, held at the Broadway Theatre, was arranged.

Kenyan Airways were initially due to greet the Queen on behalf of the Kenyan community in London.

But someone inside the church used their influential contacts to ensure that Deya conducted the proceedings instead, providing him with a priceless photo opportunity.

The amazing set of pictures is now being used by the Gilbert Deya Ministries on booklets promoting the church and its leader.

The church source also rubbished claims that Deya owns a jet. The aeroplane he is photo-graphed next to on his website, and uses throughout his promotional literature, was only hired, he said.

“The aeroplane was hired during one of his frequent trips to Kenya,” said the source. “His supporters arranged for him to have it for the day and took a load of photographs of him with it.

“Many of the pictures on his website and in his magazines are made up. He’s rich by Kenyan standards, but he is not nearly as wealthy as he makes out.”

Deya has also wildly exaggerated the number of church members in Britain, the source claimed.

“Gilbert Deya says he has 34,000 members in the church, but in reality it is much less,” he said. “There are probably 2,000 in London, 800 in Birmingham, 300 in Manchester and less than 100 in Liverpool, Nottingham and Leicester.”

Police in Kenya have asked the British Government to extradite Deya after charging his wife, Mary, with child abduction in Nairobi.

She was arrested with four other people, but Deya has denied all allegations and it is believed that he is now seeking political asylum in the UK.

The church source said: “He is claiming that the Kenyan Government is trying to kill his mother and that it is no longer safe for him to return to his homeland to answer the allegations. This is rubbish.”

Gilbert Deya Ministries is registered as a UK charity but the Charities Commission is currently investigating the church and has frozen its accounts. At the same time, the Nursing and Midwifery Council is investigating the activities of seven British nurses and midwives who are members of the church.

A second church source has told the Sunday Mercury that Deya has been making plans to save his ministry. She claimed that his son, Pastor Amos, plans to take over the UK organisation and change its name.

“Amos has already been looking at new premises for the Birmingham branch in the Digbeth area of the city,” she said.

“He wants to change the church’s name to the House of Excellence, probably to avoid any more controversy.”

A spokesman for Buckingham Palace said it was “unfortunate” that Deya had linked himself to the Royal Family.

An insider added: “The Queen met so many people during her Golden Jubilee celebrations and it is our belief that this man was not one of the official introductions that she made.”

Gilbert Deya’s solicitor, Anwar Anwar, said: “My client did meet the Queen, as many other people have.

“He has never claimed to own a jet.

“This is an assumption that the tabloid press has jumped to. He merely had his photograph taken with one.

“Mr Deya believes he will be persecuted if he returns to Kenya and it is for the British Government to decide whether he should be granted asylum.

“He welcomes the investigations by the Charities Commission. It is not my job to defend or support his claims about miracle babies.”