{"id":26294,"date":"2023-10-15T19:50:47","date_gmt":"2023-10-15T23:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=26294"},"modified":"2023-10-15T19:50:47","modified_gmt":"2023-10-15T23:50:47","slug":"brian-mwenda-kenyas-fake-lawyer-thanks-his-supporters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2023\/10\/15\/brian-mwenda-kenyas-fake-lawyer-thanks-his-supporters\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Mwenda: Kenya’s ‘fake lawyer’ thanks his supporters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A man accused of practising law without qualifications has said he is innocent – and thanked people who have come out in support of him.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On Thursday, legal officials in Kenya urged police to arrest a man practicing under the name “Brian Mwenda”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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They said the man was a “masquerader” who had stolen the identity of a real lawyer, named Brian Mwenda Ntwiga.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Local media reported that a “fake lawyer” had won dozens of lawsuits despite not being trained.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The case has captivated the East African country over the past few days, eliciting reactions from outrage to amusement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Despite condemnation by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and the country’s Director of Public Prosecutions, the alleged imposter has garnered several supporters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

He has been praised by Kenya’s Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) as a “brilliant young mind” who has succeeded “without traditional qualifications”.<\/div>\n
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He has also been backed by Mike Sonko, the controversial former governor of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Sonko\u00a0posted a video on social media<\/a>, in which he said the man standing next to him is the accused “fake lawyer”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The man in the video, who appeared to be Mr Mwenda, said: “I would like to convey my gratitude to the people that are supporting me and praying for me… in the fullness of time I will be able to clear this misunderstanding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I will be also be able to provide my innocence and provide the actual context.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He said he would go to a police station and provide officers with a statement “hopefully” on Monday or Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Mr Sonko, a divisive politician who has faced allegations of drug trafficking and money laundering<\/a>, said those attacking the “fake lawyer” are “nincompoops”.<\/div>\n
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“He’s never killed anyone, he’s not a terrorist,” Mr Sonko said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Despite this backing, Kenya’s director of public prosecutions said “Mr Mwenda” faces prosecution.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In a statement on Saturday, Renson Mulele Ingonga wrote: “I have directed the Inspector General of the National Police Service to undertake expedited comprehensive investigations.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Ingonga said this case is not unique – he has noticed “increased cases of unqualified persons… pretending to be Advocates of the High Court of Kenya”.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A man accused of practising law without qualifications has said he is innocent – and thanked people who have come out in support of him. On Thursday, legal officials in Kenya urged police to arrest […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[9811,1160,9810,8131],"class_list":{"0":"post-26294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-world","9":"tag-high-court-of-kenya","10":"tag-kenya","11":"tag-law-society-of-kenya","12":"tag-nairobi","13":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26294"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26296,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26294\/revisions\/26296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}