The death of PCEA secretary general Peter Kania has hurt a criminal case in which he was the main complainant.
He was expected to testify last week against three officials who had been charged with the theft of Sh50.9 million from the church.
Kania died of Covid-19 complications in July this year after being in hospital for over a month.
On Friday, the DPP made an application before a Kiambu court to withdraw the case against former PCEA church moderator of the general assembly David Gathanju, and two employees, James Muiruri and Peter Mwangi
The prosecution told the court that they could not proceed with the case because Rev Kania had passed away, and he was the main complainant.
They asked the court to withdraw the case under Section 87A of the Constitution, which means that the state can charge them afresh after getting fresh details and evidence.
However, defence lawyer Danstan Omari opposed the application by the prosecution and instead asked the court to withdraw the case under Section 210.
Under Section 210, the case is to be terminated permanently and an accused person cannot be charged with the same offence.
The case will be mentioned on September 26, when the trial court will rule on whether the three accused persons will be acquitted, or if their case will be withdrawn under Section 87A.
In October 2017, the accused were charged with 10 counts of forgery and one count of intent to defraud.
It was alleged that between January 2, 2016, and June 30, 2017, the accused, jointly with others, conspired to steal Sh50,940,753 from PCEA head office in South C Estate in Nairobi.
Edited by A.N
