Controversial Bishop Gilbert Juma Deya has this morning been acquitted of stealing five children.
Milimani senior principal magistrate Robison Ondieki ruled that the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case against Deya.
The court noted that the burden of proof against the accused was wanting as none of the evidence placed the accused where the subjects were recovered.
The suspicion being strong cannot make someone guilty.
"The prosecution having failed to establish circumstantial evidence, I acquit the accused under section 250 of the CPC," the magistrate ruled.
Deya was facing five counts of stealing children in 2017.
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 was 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.
