Miracle-baby 'archbishop' just a kidnapper, says court

Reuters/September 21, 2005

Nairobi -- A Kenyan court has issued an arrest warrant for a British self-styled archbishop who says his prayers bring “miracle babies” to barren women, but who is accused of abducting five children in the east African country.

“Archbishop” Gilbert Deya has claimed to use the power of prayer to help infertile women give birth, but Kenyan authorities say his organisation is part of an international baby-snatching ring.

Rosemelle Mutoka, a senior principal magistrate in Nairobi, issued the arrest warrant after state prosecutors said Mr Deya, who is based in south London, was suspected of abducting five children between 1999 and August last year.

Court officials said the arrest warrant would be forwarded to British officials so that they could send him back to Kenya.

Mr Deya says his prayers result in miracles but Kenya says his “church” is part of an international ring responsible for kidnapping babies and passing them off as the offspring of infertile women.

Last November, in a British court case brought by the London borough of Haringey, a judge ruled that a Nigerian woman’s claim that her “son” was a “miracle baby” was false.

Tests showed that his DNA did not match that of either of his supposed parents, the court was told.

The description the “mother” gave of his birth “was a falsehood, not a miracle”, said High Court judge Ernest Ryder, formally putting the boy into the borough’s temporary care.

The boy’s true identity was unknown, “stolen from him by a cruel deception perpetrated by adults who are involved in international child trafficking. Their motive is … financial greed,” he added.

“Miracle births as described to the court occur without conception, are lacking in any of the scientific indicia of pregnancy and do not have a natural gestation period.”