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UK police seize child from Deya son’s home
Controversy continued to haunt Archbishop Gilbert Deya as police in Britain seized a four-year-old baby boy from his son’s home.
Officers attached to the Metropolitan Police’s Child Abuse Investigation Command took the boy, who was found at Amos Deya’s house in Salisbury Road, into care.
A source at New Scotland Yard confirmed the raids and said one child (who cannot be named for legal reasons) was taken into care.
The source said no arrests were made during the raids.
The boy was found on Friday during a raid at five of Gilbert Deya Ministries properties in south London, Birmingham, Manchester and Scotland.
Officers, who were accompanied by social workers, entered the five addresses as part of an investigation into alleged child trafficking between the UK and Kenya.
“Our primary aim was to ensure the welfare of children situated in those addresses,” said the police source.
He said police and child protection officers from social services and officers decided to take only conducted assessment in all five homes before the child was taken away.
“Metropolitan Police and Kenyan authorities will continue to work together in this complex international child trafficking investigations,” he added.
By yesterday evening, the archbishop and his relatives were still at the West Midlands police station where Amos is being held.
Amos, who was away during the raid, is said to have returned to the house, only to find the baby missing. He is pastor of the Birmingham branch of the church, situated on Cardigan Street in the city centre.
Metropolitan Police and New Scotland Yard (Organised Crime Unit) are heading the international child trafficking investigations, which is coordinated from London and also involves Kenyan police and International Police (Interpol).
A lawyer, Cliff Ombeta, representing Amos’s mother Mary Deya, told The Standard that police in Kenya and Britain were harassing his clients.
“They did not wait for Amos to return to the house and I feel this is harassment being extended to Deya’s children,” he said.
Ombeta said the child belongs to a relative and police in Britain had no reason to take him away.
“They are looking for all grounds to charge Deya. Whatever they will come up with would be selfish,” he added.
Ombeta noted that DNA tests carried out to match that of the babies who were found at Deya’s home and Mr Michael Odera’s did not match that of the claimants.
Police in Nairobi found nine children suspected to have been stolen at Deya’s home in Mountain View Estate and 11 others at Odera’s home in Komorock Estate.
Odera’s wife Eddah claimed to have given birth more than once a year even after reaching menopause.
Meanwhile, a team of police officers will be leaving for Britain soon to convince the court why Deya should be extradited.
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