The High Court has given a nod to the State’s appeal against a ruling in which televangelist James Ng’ang’a and three others were acquitted in a case in which the pastor was charged with killing a woman by dangerous driving.

Chief Magistrate Godfrey Oduor, said the prosecution witnesses, presented to the court by the police, failed to place Ng’ang’a at the scene of the accident, and therefore it could not be proved that he was driving the Range Rover when the crash happened. In the ruling, read by Senior Principal Magistrate Karen Njalule on Monday, Oduor said evidence from the four witnesses had a lot of discrepancies.

For instance, they did not say they had spotted the pastor at the scene when recording statements with the police, yet claimed they had when testifying in court. The televangelist was charged three years ago with dangerous driving after his car crashed head-on into a Nissan March on July 26, 2015 at Manguo area in Limuru, killing Ms Mercy Njeri, who was a passenger in the Nissan. Witnesses claimed Mr Ng’ang’a was the one behind the wheel, but another man, Mr Simon Kuria, later claimed he had been the one driving. Mr Kuria, a Kenya Police Airwing inspector named Christopher Nzioka, and a police officer named Patrick Baya were the co-accused in the case.