● GMTNewsng International Desk
Controversial Kenyan televangelist and self-acclaimed miracle worker, Archbishop Gilbert Deya, who once claimed to help infertile women conceive “miracle babies” through prayer, has died following a tragic road accident in western Kenya.
Deya, 72, was confirmed dead on Tuesday evening after his vehicle collided with a university bus and another vehicle near Kisumu, local police told Kenyan media outlets. The accident also left at least 30 people injured, including his wife and several students in the bus.
Governor of Siaya County, James Orengo, described the incident as “horrific,” noting that one of the vehicles involved belonged to the county government. “I have learnt with deep sorrow and regret of the passing on of Bishop Gilbert Deya. May his soul rest in peace,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
Gilbert Deya rose to notoriety in the early 2000s after sensationally claiming that women could miraculously conceive through his prayers. His church, Gilbert Deya Ministries – headquartered in London with branches in Africa – drew global attention, especially from desperate couples seeking children.
However, subsequent investigations linked his church to an alleged child-trafficking syndicate, where babies were reportedly stolen from poor Kenyan families and presented as “miracle births.” In 2011, his then-wife, Mary Deya, was convicted and jailed for stealing a baby and falsely claiming maternity. Gilbert Deya was later extradited from the UK in 2017 after a protracted legal battle and faced charges in Kenya. He was acquitted in 2023 due to lack of sufficient evidence.
In a 2014 BBC investigation, when questioned about DNA tests disproving the biological ties between the children and their so-called miracle mothers, Deya responded enigmatically: “It is beyond human imagination. They are of God and things of God cannot be explained by a human being.”
Deya, a former stonemason, had reinvented himself in the 1990s as a charismatic preacher in London. He claimed to have been consecrated as an archbishop by an American evangelist and ran his ministry as a registered charity. However, his organization also faced scrutiny in the UK over deceptive religious practices, including selling olive oil as a healing potion.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, then a Member of Parliament, once described him as “a modern-day snake-oil salesman who has conned and betrayed his vulnerable congregation.”
Until his death, Deya remained active in ministry. In recent videos posted on his YouTube page, he introduced a new spouse, Diana Deya, and continued hosting prayer programmes and outreach efforts.
Photographs from the crash site showed the wreckage of one of the vehicles completely mangled – a stark end to a man whose life was defined by controversy, charisma, and courtroom drama.
Reporting for GMTNewsng | © 2025 GMTNewsng
