Archbishop Gilbert Deya (in blue jacket and tie) at the Milimani law court. He is charged with five accounts. [Photo|The Standard]
The self-styled televangelist Gilbert Deya will spend another 90 days remanded to allow for the prosecution to carry further investigations on the preacher’s trial.
Archbishop Deya will remain under police custody at Kamiti maximum prison until the end of his trial.
Nairobi Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi had ordered for Deya to be released after he paid a Ksh1 million bond and delivered two sureties but the order was overturned by the high court judge Luka Kimaru on Friday at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi.
Kimaru ordered that the preacher is held behind bars for the entire period of his trial.
The court cited that Archbishop Deya was a flight risk and thus he could not be released on a bond as he would fly out of the country.The archbishop is faced by five accounts of stealing five underage children between 1999 and 2004 if found guilty the man of color risks to be jailed just like his wife Mary Deya, who was sentenced for 3 years in 2008 with 10 counts of similar offenses.
His Gilbert Deya Ministries is being investigated by the UK Charity Commission for alleged mismanagement.
“Our statutory inquiry into Gilbert Deya Ministries is ongoing. We are currently considering the implication of Gilbert Deya’s extradition on our investigation,” the commission said in a statement.
When the BBC asked Mr. Deya during its 2014 investigation how he explained the births of children with DNA different to that of their alleged parents, the 65-year-old Mr. Deya said: “The miracle babies which are happening in our ministry are beyond human imagination.