Preacher who claimed to cure infertility is killed in car crash

Gilbert Deya moved from Kenya to the UK, where he led the Gilbert Deya Ministries

(Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Controversial televangelist Gilbert Deya, known for his claims of curing infertility, has died in a multi-vehicle car crash in western Kenya. Local authorities confirmed Deya’s death on Tuesday.

James Orengo, the governor of Kenya’s Siaya County, announced the death on social platform X, describing it as "a horrific road accident which involved several vehicles."

Local media reports indicated multiple casualties in the collision. Photos circulating on social media from the scene depicted severely damaged vehicles on the highway.

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.

Self-styled Archbishop Gilbert Deya, right, speaks at a press conference in Glasgow, Scotland Wednesday Sept. 29, 2004 as he sits alongside pregnant woman Deonna Dakkins-Scott, who claims she became pregnant after she was blessed by Deya. (AP Photo/Ian Stewart, File) (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

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.