The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in conjunction with the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has launched a manhunt for fake lawyers minting millions from Kenyans.
In an operation launched in Thika, Kiambu County on Thursday, February 17, two individuals masquerading as Advocates of the High Court of Kenya were nabbed after receiving Ksh70,000 from an unsuspecting client.
The DCI noted that the well organised syndicate had fraudulently amassed millions through the scheme.
Speaking to the media after the operation, Thika LSK Chairman, Daniel Gachau, stated that the operation will continue as they hunt for more suspects.
“We have seen people who are pretending to be lawyers because many people cannot differentiate between a genuine and fake lawyer. This is why we have done this operation to weed out the fake ones.
“During our operation, we were shocked to find out that two individuals received Ksh70,000 from an unsuspecting individual who wanted a lawyer to pursue their case,” he disclosed.
Additionally, he urged Kenyans to authenticate the licenses of lawyers before engaging their services, adding that there were various ways of finding out if someone was a certified advocate or not.
“This operation is not just for today. It is something that we will be doing all the time. As lawyers, it is our responsibility to inform Kenyans who a lawyer is.
“LSK would like to warn them that we will not allow them to ruin our profession. We want to thank the DCI for cooperating with us. We would like to ask our colleagues to always display their licenses in the open,” he stated.
In 2020, detectives from DCI apprehended a man who had posed as a lawyer in Kiambu and was accused of allegedly giving fake court orders to his clients.
The suspect was reported to have also forged documents to identify himself while appearing before Judges.
“Stamped documents made by the suspect bearing the names of different law firms, believed to be fake or forged were recovered from the suspect’s house by the sleuths and have been retained as exhibits pending his arraignment,” the DC stated then.
