Deya's wife jailed over miracle baby 'scandal'

By NANCY AKINYI

The wife of UK-based evangelist Gilbert Deya has been jailed for three years for stealing a child.

Mary Deya will at the same time serve a two-year term, to run concurrently, for two counts of giving false information to public officers.

Kibera Senior magistrate Grace Nzioka convicted Deya after the prosecution adduced circumstantial evidence to sustain the charges.

"I am convinced that the accused person is not the mother of the said child because all evidence showed she was not pregnant at the claimed period," said Nzioka.

Deya stood pensively at the dock as she followed the judgement.

She switched from standing straight, starring at the magistrate or the cameras, holding her arms akimbo to bending as the judge delivered the two-hour long judgement.

Public ridicule

It is like she did not understand her fate as she asked court bailings after the judgement where she could pay cash bail.

Nzioka first read the more than 100-page judgement in English before explaing the implications to Deya in Kiswahili.

Deya in her mitigation, through her advocate, urged the court to be lenient when sentencing her.

"My client has been a subject of public ridicule concerning the matter in question and the court should put into consideration the fact that she has previously been jailed for a related offense." Though the child’s parents have not been traced, the court maintained that Deya stole the child from unsuspecting parents.

The prosecution led by Chief Inspector Francis Ndiema and Bridgit Kanyai called 14 witnesses, most of them medical doctors.

Deya did not call any witness but gave an unsworn statement.

The main witness Dr James Kiarie, who examined Deya, told the court the accused was not the mother of the child.

"From the physical examination of Deya’s uterus, I concluded that the accused was not the mother of the baby in question, " he told court.

Dr Samson Wanjala narrated to the court how the accused pleaded with him to induce delivery at a private clinic.

The Government analyst Dr John Mungai told the court that froml tests conducted on Deya, the accused person was excluded as the baby’s mother.

A nurse from Kenyatta Hospital told the court she became curious when after escorting Deya to the toilet she saw her pick a used sanitary pad from the dustbin and re-uses it.