Did you know that Brian Mwenda, who was never licensed to practice law, won 26 legal cases while practicing before the High Court of Kenya?

Brian Mwenda, a resident of Kenya, reportedly practiced in the court of law while pretending to be a legal professional. It was also revealed that Mwenda represented as many as 26 clients in several Kenyan courts and also won all the cases he took up.

Mwenda studied at Madaraka Primary School and studied criminology at Chuka University. But while he had a legal background, he lacked a license to practice law.

He was arrested in September 2023 by the Rapid Action Team of the Nairobi Branch of the Law Society of Kenya. Brian Mwenda allegedly used false credentials to obtain a license on The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) portal.

Officials in Kenya notified the police to arrest him as they noted that he was a "masquerader" and that he had been using the identity of a lawyer named Brian Mwenda Ntwiga.

An internal investigation into the case revealed that he followed a popular fraud scheme known as the Business Email Compromise, as per the Kenya Police Service. The Law Society of Kenya's online portal where his information was getting stored, confirmed that it wasn't compromised. Authorities revealed that they are now taking measures to make the portal even more effective.

The investigation into the case began when Brian Mwenda Ntwiga, the legitimate lawyer, allegedly contacted the Secretariat in September 2023 after he failed to access the Advocates portal. It was then revealed that the man posing as him had an e-mail address that was possibly not a genuine one. 

According to The Law Society of Kenya in a statement: "We reached out to Advocate Brian Mwenda Ntwiga who confirmed that he had not applied for a practicing certificate since his admission (August 5, 2022), reason being that he had been working at the Office of the Attorney General and did not require a Practicing Certificate. It was only until sometime in September 2023 when he attempted to login into the system and activate his profile to apply for his Practising Certificate that he realised he could not access his LSK Portal."

The Nairobi Branch of the Law Society of Kenya took to Twitter on October 12 to notify the public that Mwenda was "not an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya." They also stated that he was not a member of the branch either.

The case captivated the East African country over the past few days, eliciting reactions from outrage to amusement. Despite condemnation by the LSK and the country's Director of Public Prosecutions, the alleged imposter has garnered several supporters. He has been praised by Kenya's Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) as a "brilliant young mind" who has succeeded "without traditional qualifications". He has also been backed by Mike Sonko, the controversial former governor of Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

Sources: Sports Keeda | BBC

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