Kenya: Deya’s wife lays ground for appeal against jail term

Controversial cleric Gilbert Deya’s wife, Mary, Thursday laid down her grounds for an appeal seeking acquittal in a case where she was convicted for stealing a baby.

Mrs Deya said the evidence tabled before a magistrate who sentenced her to serve three years in jail was contradictory with the particulars of the charge sheet drafted by police.

In her appeal papers, she claimed that the DNA of the baby in question was never examined to see if it matched that of the woman who was said to be its mother.

“I urge the court to find that the trial court trampled over very serious issues and that crucial medical records were not produced at all during the proceedings,” she said.

She also faulted the doctors who tendered evidence before the trial court saying that they gave uncorroborated evidence based on hearsay.

According to her, she was already in possession of the “stolen child” when she arrived at Nairobi Hospital.

Mrs Deya had earlier in her evidence said that she gave birth on her way to the hospital in a taxi which she took near Nakumatt.

She thus contended that it was therefore not possible that she had stolen the child from the hospital. “Indeed there is absolutely no evidence to suggest as such,” she added.

PARENTS UNKNOWN

Mrs Deya argued that the parents of the child allegedly stolen are unknown to date. She said that the offence of “stealing cannot be victimless” and challenged the State to produce the complainant in her case.

“The parents of the child have never been identified since the trial began eight years ago, despite there being numerous biological tests,” she said.

The cleric’s wife said that the prosecution tendered that the reason for the inability to identify the allegedly stolen child’s parents was due to the fact that the baby may have been swapped at Nairobi Hospital.

She termed the theory of the “baby swap” as unreasonable because the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses indicated that the previous baby had been newly born yet the baby she allegedly stole at KNH was more than 24hrs old.

Mrs Deya is seeking a revocation of a judgment convicting her as a thief which according to her, was based on false allegations by one Dr James Kiarie formerly of KNH.

The cleric’s wife also faulted the omission to avail documents from the hospital or call the doctors to the stand saying that it seriously compromised her right as the accused and unwittingly shifted the burden of guilt on her.

She also challenged the charges levelled against her by the prosecution terming them as “fundamentally and incurably defective.”

“The court very well set out in its judgment that a child is not a thing capable of being stolen. The conviction is not supported by the evidence tendered and the charge sheet mistreated my innocence,” Ms Deya said.

Mrs Deaya said the prosecution failed to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt as required by criminal law.

The presiding judge Justice Mbogholi Msagha ordered a state counsel to file a replying submission to Mrs Deya’s appeal in seven days.

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