A Kenyan preacher who claimed responsibility for 'miracle babies' is killed in a car crash

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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A televangelist in Kenya who was notorious for claiming to cure infertility in women died in a car crash on Tuesday, local authorities said.

Gilbert Deya was killed in “a horrific road accident which involved several vehicles,” James Orengo, the governor of Kenya’s Siaya County, said in a post on the social platform X. Local media said there were multiple casualties in the crash, and photos from the scene posted on social media showed mangled vehicles on the highway in western Kenya.

Deya, a onetime stonemason who later styled himself as a bishop, prospered in the 1990s with claims of his ability to successfully pray for women who were struggling to have babies.

In 1990s, the preacher moved from Kenya to the U.K., where he led the Gilbert Deya Ministries, with churches in cities including London and Manchester.

The Kenya News Agency reported after Deya’s death that the preacher and his wife “claimed that infertile or menopausal women could become pregnant in four months, without having sexual relations, thanks to their prayers.”

The claim of “miracle babies” later attracted the attention of authorities, and he was accused in Kenya of stealing five children between 1999 and 2004.

He was extradited to Kenya in 2017 to face criminal charges, which he denied. Prosecutors argued in that case that Deya stole babies from poor people in Kenya and gave them to others to raise as their own.

Deya was acquitted of all charges in 2023.