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Pastor: I'm no child trader
29/09/2004 13:20 - (SA)
London - A controversial Kenyan pastor on Wednesday denied allegations that he is involved in an international child-trafficking ring.
Self-styled Archbishop Gilbert Deya is fighting efforts to extradite him to Kenya as part of an inquiry into claims he and his London-based ministry have helped infertile or post-menopausal women produce "miracle" babies by praying to God to help them conceive.
But British authorities took one of the resulting babies into care after tests showed its DNA did not match that of either of its parents.
Concerns were raised after British media reported that babies were being "born" to British women after they had visited backstreet clinics in slums in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Wife also charged
Earlier this month, Deya's wife was charged with stealing a child from the Pumwani Hospital in Nairobi.
The Charities Commission, Britain's watchdog of charities, recently froze the bank accounts of Gilbert Deya Ministries, based in south-east London, while it investigates the group's use of funds, its fund-raising and its publicity.
Deya's organisation calls itself as an international religious ministry that began in Kenya and now has 34 000 followers in Britain.
In an interview on BBC radio on Wednesday, Deya said the Kenyan authorities were "jealous" of his success as a religious leader.
"It doesn't make sense because I am a figure in the city of Nairobi. I've been established on television. How can I go to the maternity hospital then with my wife and steal a baby?"
He said, "According to us, we have prayed. It is ongoing miracles. These people are British, and they are here, and they have babies. Why should we prosecute it?"
More charged with trafficking
Deya's lawyer, Aamer Anwar, said his client was fighting extradition because he did not believe he would get a fair trial in Kenya.
"Mr Deya is fully entitled to that due process of law as any other individual would be," Anwar said.
In addition to Deya's wife, four other people in Kenya were charged with stealing two children, which DNA tests showed didn't belong to the adults who were keeping them. The tests of 15 other children found at the adults' homes also showed they didn't belong to the suspects, police said.
Kenyan prosecutors say the investigation into alleged international child-trafficking involves suspects in Britain, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya. - AP
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