Scotland will be the stage for a bizarre media event this week, one which will attempt to prove that miracles really can happen.
Archbishop Gilbert Deya, a Kenyan church leader and self-styled miracle worker, claims he will prove that infertile women can become pregnant through the power of his prayer.
Deya has got a lot riding on Wednesday’s press conference – if he fails he could be extradited to Kenya on charges of “child theft”.
Deya is accused of masterminding a child-trafficking ring which saw children taken from hospitals in Nairobi and given to families in the UK and South America.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Herald, Deya said he will bring a member of his London congregation to Glasgow to prove that she is carrying a “miracle baby”.
He said that the woman – who he will only refer to as Edith – has given birth to three healthy, full-sized babies within 12 months. She is now expecting a fourth.
When she arrived at her doctor’s surgery in London claiming she was expecting a baby, medics scanned her stomach and told her that she was not pregnant. She then travelled to Kenya where Deya claims she gave birth.
Kenyan authorities believe that the “mothers” of these “miracle babies” were in fact given children who had been stolen in Nairobi maternity clinics from new parents from impoverished backgrounds.
Kenyan women are now coming forward claiming that the “miracle babies” belong to them. A number of Deya’s own children – who he said were also miracle babies – have been taken into care.
Some women claim that they were told by hospital staff that their children had died. Sometimes they were not given the child’s body for burial or they were shown corpses of babies that did not match the bodies of their own children. DNA tests have shown only one of the children involved in the investigation is a genetic match for its birth-mother.
But Deya says he is being “hounded” by the Kenyan government because he was close to the previous administration. He compares the allegations against him to the persecution of St Peter, St Paul and Jesus Christ, and claims he will be killed if he is extradited.
“Edith will give birth in Britain and that will prove the miracle,” said Deya. “The miracle will prove itself.”