Nairobi Court has finally granted bond terms to Gilbert Deya, who has been behind bars since August 4.
The successful bond re-application through lawyer John Swaka was granted when it became clear that prosecution would not be able to conclude its case within 120 days set by court as there werestill many witnesses lined up to testify.
The court previously denied the International preacher bond on grounds that he was a flight risk. In light of this, the court had undertaken to conduct Deya’s case within the shortest time possible, directing prosecution to finish its case within 120 days.
While granting him bail, Milimani Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi directed that the preacher should execute a bond of Sh1 million and two sureties of a similar amount.
‘The miracle babies’ bishop will also have to deposit his travel documents with the court and report to the police twice a week. His lawyer John Swaka undertook to be personally liable should the preacher abscond court proceedings.
Televangelist Gilbert Deya was deported from United Kingdom to Kenya on Friday, August 4.
Deya was ordained by the United Evangelical Church of Kenya and styles himself as “Archbishop”. He was an evangelist in Kenya in the late 1980s to early 1990s and moved to the UK, establishing Gilbert Deya Ministries in 1997.
The Bishop is facing child trafficking charges following accusations that he coordinated in trafficking of children, who his church would later present as ‘miracles’ for barren mothers.
Police also alleged that Deya stole five children between May 1999 and December 2004 from Pumwani Hospital to facilitate his ‘miracle babies’ project.
In 2005, Mr. Deya’s wife Mary was handed a three-year jail term after she was found guilty of stealing a child from the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi. Mary falsely claimed that the baby was hers, but it was later confirmed that she had stolen it.
On 13 December 2006, Mr Deya was arrested in London by the Metropolitan Police. A police spokesman said Gilbert Deya was detained under an arrest warrant issued by Kenyan authorities, who had charged him with child abduction and trafficking. He was ordered by a court on 8 November 2007, to be extradited from the UK to Kenya to face five counts of child trafficking.
-standardmedia.co.ke
