• Deya told the court that his wife Mary was first charged with the same offence of stealing five children but the court acquitted her for lack of evidence.
• The lawyer told the court that the prosecution placed the reliance on a number of witnesses who failed to show that Deya received and harboured the children.
Controversial Bishop Gilbert Juma Deya who has been charged with stealing five children will know his fate in the case on June 23.
Milimani senior principal magistrate Robison Ondieki on Wednesday said he will deliver his judgement in the case in June after the parties filed their submissions.
Deya through his lawyer John Swaka was told to file his submissions as well as the prosecution.
Early in May, Deya told the court the state fabricated the theft of five children case against him without evidence.
While defending himself from the allegation, the preacher who was on August 4, 2017, deported to Kenya from the UK to face child theft charges, denied all the five counts levelled against him by the state.
At the same time, Deya asked the court to acquit him for lack of evidence saying he was maliciously charged with the same offence that his wife was charged with and acquitted for lack of evidence.
While being cross-examined by senior state counsel Nicholas Mutuku, the preacher told the court that he is being persecuted by the state. He denied having stolen the children, adding that he was in the UK when the alleged offences were said to have been committed.
The bishop denied having given any instruction to anybody to keep the five children in his Mountain View House No 226 in Nairobi.
He told magistrate Ondieki that the charges against him were malicious and meant to tarnish his name as "a man of God."
Deya said at the time of the alleged offence he was in the UK where his church is based.
"Your honour I did not process a birth certificate for the alleged children and the DNA result did not show that the children were mine," he said.
He said he has no connection with the five children. Deya also denied having visited several clinics in Nairobi. He said he never registered the children as alleged by the prosecution.
Deya told the court that his wife Mary was first charged with the same offence of stealing five children but the court acquitted her for lack of evidence.
"Your honour prosecution later charged me with the same offence," Deya said.
He asked the court to acquit him for lack of evidence, saying he has never engaged himself in child trafficking.
"The ingredients of the offence have not been proven to satisfaction," said the bishop.
In the case, Deya is charged with five counts of stealing five children, all aged under 14 years, between 2002 and 2004, at Mountain View Estate, Nairobi.
Lawyer Swaka submitted that the prosecution presented several exhibits that failed to show the main ingredient that would place his client at fault and guilty beyond any reasonable doubt.
"There was no evidence pointing to the offence laid out against the accused person," Swaka said.
The lawyer told the court that the prosecution placed the reliance on a number of witnesses who failed to show that Deya received and harboured the children.
He said it is important to note that the testimonies provided only go further to show that the accused was nowhere in the country and could therefore not be linked to the act of receiving and harbouring the children, who are the subject matter of the charge sheet.
"It is our humble and most considered submission that the prosecution's case has been a certified failure and a dead wood from ab-initio," the lawyer said.