The wife of controversial UK-based televangelist Gilbert Deya has been jailed for three years for stealing a baby at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya.
Kibera senior principal magistrate Grace Nzioka found Mary Deya guilty of the crime committed in 2005.
Mrs Deya was also found guilty of two counts of giving false information that she had given birth to the child and was jailed for two years on each count.
She will however serve only three years since the sentence runs concurrently, Capital FM reports.
The self-styled Archbishop Gilbert Deya claims his prayers for female worshippers at his UK-based church result in them being pregnant ‘by Jesus’ and later giving birth to ‘miracle babies.’
But British authorities have determined that the DNA of at least one of these so called ‘miracle’ babies did not match either of its supposed parents.
Later it was discovered that the child’s Kenyan birth certificate was forged.
Kenyan police say Gilbert Deya Ministries is an international child trafficking ring, the BBC reported in November, 2007.
A British family court judge agreed, saying infertile couples and congregation members were “deceived” by Mr Deya and that he was motivated by “the most base of human avarices: financial greed”.
The court ordered that Gilbert be extradited to Kenya, is charged with five counts of child stealing between 1999 and 2004.
At the time his wife had already been convicted of child stealing offences in Nairobi.
To date Gilbert Deya is still fighting extradition.
Last week Deya’s nephew was convicted of killing his three-year-old son after accusing his wife of adultery.
Paul Otieno Deya worked in the media department of Gilbert Deya’s organization — which his attorney referred to as a “strange cult-like church,” adding, “This was a tight-knit religious community run by a charlatan.”