Kenya’s ‘Miracle Babies’ Pastor Killed In Car Accident

Pastor Gilbert Deya

Source: Africa Publicity

A Kenyan pastor who once claimed he created miraculous pregnancies and babies, has died in a car accident.

 

Kenyan police said the controversial televangelist, Gilbert Deya, well-known as ‘miracle babies’ pastor, died on the spot on Tuesday evening, June 17, 2025 after his vehicle was involved in a crash with a university bus and another vehicle near the western Kenyan town of Kisumu.

 

Some 30 people were also reportedly injured. Among those injured are a woman identified as pastor Deya’s wife, and a passenger in his car, as well as 15 students in the bus.

 

Deya, who ran a church in London, rose to infamy in the early 2000s, following his claim that he could help infertile couples conceive “miracle” babies through prayer.

 

Investigations later linked his church to an alleged child-trafficking ring, leading to his arrest and extradition from the UK eight years ago after a decade-long legal battle.

 

Deya was later acquitted of the charges in 2023 due to insufficient evidence.

 

On Wednesday, Siaya County Governor James Orengo said he had learnt with “deep sorrow and regret of the passing on of Bishop Gilbert Deya”.

 

Mr. Orengo confirmed that the “horrific” road accident had involved a vehicle belonging to the county.

 

A former stonemason-turned evangelist, Deya moved from Kenya to London in the mid-1990s, where he founded Gilbert Deya Ministries, a registered charity with branches across the UK and Africa.

 

Deya was known for his charismatic preaching style and claimed to have been consecrated as an archbishop by a US evangelist in 1992.

 

His ministries later faced multiple investigations by the UK authorities for alleged mismanagement and legal violations, including selling olive oil which were falsely claiming to have healing properties.

He was once described by UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, then an MP, as a “modern-day snake-oil salesman who has conned and betrayed his vulnerable congregation”.

 

 

At his church, desperate women, some past their menopause and others who were unable to conceive, would be convinced that they would become pregnant through prayer.

 

 

But the babies were always “delivered” in backstreet clinics in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. The prosecution said the babies were stolen from poor Kenyan families.

In 2011, his then wife Mary Deya was jailed after being found guilty of stealing a baby from the main referral hospital in Nairobi and falsely stating she had given birth to the baby.

 

Deya would later tell a court that they had divorced after she had been charged, saying she had “tarnished” his name.

 

Recent videos from the YouTube page of Gilbert Deya Ministries appear to show him announcing that he has a new wife, Diana Deya.