‘Miracle baby’ pastor to be extradited to Kenya

British authorities say they are preparing to extradite to Kenya a self-styled archbishop who claimed to help infertile couples produce "miracle babies."

The london-based Kenyan preacher Gilbert Deya faces charges in Kenya of abducting five children from a hospital.

Britain’s Home Office said Wednesday that Deya has exhausted all appeals and will be deported.

The self-proclaimed bishop of a church in Peckham, south London, has fought removal from Britain since 2007, claiming he faces torture and inhuman and degrading treatment if sent back.

A spokesman for the department said: "On Tuesday 13 September the Secretary of State decided that Mr Deya’s extradition should proceed.

"He has exhausted all avenues of appeal against extradition under the Extradition Act."

Infertile or post-menopausal women who attended his church in Peckham, South London were told they would be having "miracle" babies.

But the babies were always "delivered" in backstreet clinics in Nairobi.

The Tottenham MP, David Lammy, had a husband and wife turn up at his constituency surgery who had been through it.

"The couple went to Africa, came back into the country with a child that the authorities found out was not theirs through a DNA test.

"What unravelled was clearly a child trafficking situation, that didn’t just involve my constituents, but involved a number of women making their way to Kenya and then arriving back into our country apparently thinking these children were theirs but they clearly were not," he said.

Gilbert Deya was interviewed on BBC’s Face the Facts in 2004.

When asked how he explained the births of children with DNA different to that of their alleged parents, he said: "The miracle babies which are happening in our ministry are beyond human imagination.

"It is not something I can say I can explain because they are of God and things of God cannot be explained by a human being."

In 2007, the then home secretary, Jacqui Smith decided Mr Deya should be extradited to Kenya.

His appeal against that decision at the High Court failed and he was refused permission to take his case to the House of Lords.

And while the legal wranglings have continued Gilbert Deya has remained in the UK running what appears to be a successful charity, and broadcasting to Africa and Europe on his satellite TV channel, Deya Broadcasting Network.

The latest available accounts for his charity, Gilbert Deya Ministries, date back to 2009 and show an income from voluntary donations of more than £1.2m.

The charity’s stated purpose is to "advance the Christian religion". On its website it claims to have 34,000 followers with churches in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leicester and London.

Mr Deya’s wife, Mary, has already been jailed in Kenya for child abduction.

In a statement the Home Office said: "He has exhausted all avenues of appeal against extradition under the Extradition Act."

A decision to deport Deya was rubber-stamped by Jacqui Smith when she was home secretary in December 2007.

The evangelist then failed in a High Court appeal against before being refused permission to take his case to the House of Lords.

His lawyers had argued that his human rights would be breached if he returned and claimed he is the victim of a political vendetta in Kenya.

Deya runs registered charity Gilbert Deya Ministries, which claims a UK membership of 36,000.