Controversial UK-Based Kenyan Pastor Defends His "Miracle Babies"

KTN TV, via BBC Monitoring, Kenya/April 2, 2005

[Presenter] It may not yet be all water under the bridge since police in Kenya exposed, as part of a child-trafficking syndicate, allegations by Gilbert Juma Deya of Deya Ministries that he could pray and make women conceive miracle babies. Despite remaining a fugitive, Deya continues preaching in the United Kingdom, unmoved by the possible dent this scandal has left on his image. Our weekend feature crew caught up with him at his ministries’ headquarters in Manchester.

[Deya] You know God does not talk the way people think he talks. He talks with miracles, signs and wonders. [Applause] Oh no.

[Reporter] The quiver in the bishop’s voice reinforces his pious message to an attentive congregation.

[Deya] He divided water into two. He never speak verbally and we were walking in water cap, cap, cap, cap, cap and no even mat. [Sentence as heard]

[Reporter] It is Easter time and the man, who hails from a remote village in Bondo District [western Kenya], continues to draw a sizeable crowd despite the huge dent left on his image by allegations of child-trafficking. He insists the miracle babies are real.

[Deya] I’ve the latest news that Mrs [Miriam] Nyerko [co-accused in the babies saga case in Nairobi court] is pregnant. [Clapping by crowd] Mrs Nyerko is pregnant and Nyerko is here. Ho, ho, ho. [Applause] She talked to me today in the afternoon, she said the baby is kicking properly, I say yeah, ho, ha. [more applause]. And my wife also is pregnant.

[Reporter] A man of minimal education, Bishop Deya, is here on a mission.

[Deya] Restore Christianity to the land of Britain, they lost it. Britain people are not Christian any more. The bishops are worshipping Satan because they allow gay marriages. Listen carefully. They allow witchcraft, a woman sleeps with a woman, a man sleeps with a man, God hates that. That is why God send me here.

[Reporter] And having walked side-by-side with biting poverty, Gilbert Juma Deya has risen to the heights of immense wealth.

[Deya] I’m a typical example to everyone who thought that education bring wealth. I’m wealthy, definitely I’m. But I started my struggle in Kenya. I was making shoes in Kenya, the year 1990, until my shoes become number one, and [former] President Moi gave me credit. I have had a kiosk that I was selling porridge and chicken and all these kind things. I have had a dressmaking [shop] in Nairobi, in Huruma [poor eastern Nairobi suburb], and I was a jua kali [informal sector worker], good jua kali one. I have been a matatu [public minibus] driver, Kibera Laini Saba [poor Nairobi east], Ngummo, IDH, gari wazi [Swahili: vehicle empty], let us go. I have driven taxi in the whole country, Kisumu [western Kenya], Nairobi to and fro. I bought (presumably brought up) my children, young one, when they are still going to school Kimalel, when I was just a matatu driver. What else have I not done? I have sold sukumawiki [kales] from marikiti [main vegetable market in Nairobi] to Kibera Laini Saba. And this God, whom I serve, does not help people who are lazy.

[Reporter] And he gives you peep into his wealth and empire.

[Deya] Yeah, and Manchester is 1.6m pounds latest by valuation. Liverpool is 1.5[m pounds]. So the property of my ministry in the UK only is 4.6m pounds. When I say this, some people who thought that these are all my wealth, they are now going to the toilet because they are scared that I’m wealthy.

[Reporter] His staggering wealth aside, Bishop Deya is confident of his mastery of English.

[Deya] I know English better than you. And if you tell me you know English better than me you are in trouble, cause my English is the best, cause what you call the other side, me I call them right.

[Reporter] He also claims to have rubbed shoulders with the high and mighty.

[Deya] I recognize myself as a high profile [person] even if you don’t [me]. I have had privilege to visit to King Mswati of South Africa, of Botswana [as heard]. In this nation, Great Britain, her majesty the Queen, invited me in an occasion which he gave me a little bit an audience, which I believe is a honour. [Sentence as heard]

[Reporter] With his wife facing charges of child theft and trafficking and a warrant of his arrest still out, could this be the end of the road?

[Deya] I don’t think it is appropriate now to go to Kenya. Anybody who crack loggerhead with the politician, you have dug your own grave, even that nation.

[Reporter] And like the proverbial general, he flees to fight another day.

[Deya] Moses ran from pharaoh, how wise should I not run? Elijah run from Jezebel. My Jezebel are Kenyans now.

[Reporter] Deya explains how fell out with politicians, whom he had given a shoulder to lean on.

[Deya] I needed some people, who in high politician, to help to protect me. [Planning Minister] Anyang Nyong’o, [George] Muhoho [close ally of President Kibaki], and this all his party. Before 10 days to [the December 2002] election, they run over here. They wanted money from me and they wanted prayer. Kibaki was sick in the hospital. And [late] Vice-President Wamalwa Kijana, I hold his hand and we pray for my president. If they were coming to meet me here in London, why when they had something has come again, why should they not look into? [Sentence as heard]

[Reporter] And so the bishop continues to minister unpertubed by the warrant of his arrest, unmoved by the heavy doubts casts on his miracle babies, and only displaying minimal signs of his rustic upbringing.