Kids conceived 'by prayer'
2004-08-17 16:29
Nairobi - Thirteen Kenyan children under five are to undergo genetic tests to verify claims by a Kenyan pastor that they were born to a post-menopause and infertile woman every four months without copulation.
"We have to ascertain if the claims are real and the only way is to carry out DNA tests on the 13 'miracle children'," police spokesperson Jasper Ombati said on Tuesday.
The children were picked up from a home in the Nairobi suburbs of a couple, Mr and Mrs Odera, both staunch followers of Kenya's UK-based tele-evangelist, Gilbert Deya, who claims he can pray for unfortunate women to give birth in four months without sex.
Deya argues that he does so by casting away evil spirits and demons from women.
The parentage drama has dominated newsprint and has offered canon fodder to FM radios in the east African nation, prompting children's rights groups to claim that "it is part of an intricate network to smuggle children in Kenya."
Deya himself said in an interview, published Kenya's East African Standard on Tuesday, that he is facing child-trafficking charges at a London court, but that he would present the couple, blessed with "miracle babies", to the British High Commission in Nairobi.
"We are concerned by the satanic accusations against me as I have focused my ministry to prove the reality of God in our generation.
"Children are born in front of video cameras and pictures taken before the umbilical cord is cut," he told the paper.