Mr Deya gained early fame as a rural exorcist performing healing at religious gatherings

Mr Deya gained early fame as a rural exorcist, performing healing at religious gatherings.But while Mr Deya may claim thousands of followers, his ministry has found little favour with people who live and work near his church. Many complain of the mayhem caused by the crowds that flock to this part of south-east London on a weekend.Anne Ward, landlady of the Barnaby pub, said: “You want to come round here on a Saturday night. A few days later, police raided the Deyas’ home in the upmarket Nairobi suburb of Mountain View and found nine more children, claimed by Mrs Deya as her own. They start at 10 o’clock and there are raves going on until 6 o’clock in the morning.”It is like New York city, music until all hours They are a nightmare. It has been estimated that he earns at least £200,000 a year, but he insisted that any money donated went directly to his registered charity, Gilbert Deya Ministries.The charity’s accountancy firm, Kojo & Co, recently wrote an open letter confirming that all incomes generated by the charity were used for the purposes of the charity: “In our opinion, none was used to acquire a property for the benefit of any trustees.”A Kenyan journalist, Gitau wa Njenga, told The Independent that, in addition to the £1m headquarters building in south London, Deya Ministries owned several other properties in London and Nairobi “By our standards he has a lot of property,” Mr Njenga said.

“He is very rich.” Repeated calls to Mr Deya’s accountants this week were not answered.It has been a long road from the impoverished district of Thika, where Mr Deya was born in the 1950s to, in his own words, “a family of thieves”. His father, he says, was a “pagan, a terrible drunk and a womaniser”, who found God not long before his premature death in 1973. I have invited international doctors to come and witness the power of God that is using me to perform miracles in Jesus’ name – that women are giving birth within two to three months every time.”He also rejected allegations that he was enriching himself from the proceeds of his miraculous abilities and from the donations of his congregation, who are understood to be encouraged to give a “tithe” (10 per cent of their income) to the church. A stone’s throw from the tin shack in which he grew up, it is the finest home in the area.He has the use of at least one liveried private aircraft, and his Mercedes, with its personalised number plates, is the talk of the neighbourhood.Mr Deya told The Independent last week that the Kenyan authorities were pursuing a vendetta against him, and threatened temporal and spiritual punishment – libel laws and hellfire – against those who questioned his powers, calling journalists who report the child-trafficking story “malicious”, “wicked” and “devil worshippers”.”I am not a trafficker. He also claims a close relationship with the former Kenyan president Daniel Arap Moi But all his connections appear to be running for cover.

None has made a public statement in his defence, while the pressure on the Kenyan government mounts to lodge a formal extradition request for Mr Deya to face charges alongside his wife.Since arriving in Britain in 1996, Mr Deya has built himself a reputation as a barnstorming preacher. He has a £1m headquarters in Peckham, a large house in the swish Mountain View area of Nairobi and a palatial bungalow in Got Abiero, the village where he was born. He has built up a large congregation in south London with offshoots in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham. His website includes a video of him with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at his church in Peckham.