From Legal Luminary to Legal Liability: Brian Mwenda’s Courtroom Drama Unfolds
Nairobi, Kenya — Once praised as a rising star in the legal arena, Brian Mwenda’s dramatic fall from grace played out this week in the very courts he once hoped to command. In a case that reads like a rejected “Suits” script, Mwenda now faces serious charges of impersonation and forgery after posing as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya—without ever being one.
Appearing before the Milimani Law Courts, Mwenda stood not as counsel, but as the accused, with the law he once pretended to wield now bearing down on him. His story, equal parts audacious and tragic, has captivated legal circles and stunned a nation that watched his initial courtroom performances with intrigue.
The prosecution’s star witness, Kennedy Ogutu—legal counsel in the Office of the Chief Registrar of the Judiciary—delivered a damning account. According to Ogutu, the Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI) reached out to the Kenya School of Law on October 20, 2023, seeking to verify whether Mwenda had ever enrolled, completed his studies, or graduated from the institution.
Three days later, on October 23, the Office of the Chief Registrar received a follow-up from the DCI regarding two documents under scrutiny: a certificate of admission to the bar and an annual practicing certificate for 2023, both bearing the name Brian Mwenda. The task? Authenticate the documents.
What they found was jaw-dropping.
For starters, no record existed of a “Brian Mwenda Njagi” within the registry. The P105 identifier on his forged certificate belonged to a different advocate—one Brian Mwenda Ntiga, not Njagi. Advocates in Kenya are assigned a lifelong P-number upon admission, and it’s non-transferable. This was strike one.
Strike two? The certificate bore the signature of the late Chief Justice Evans Gicheru, who resigned in 2011 and passed away in 2020—yet the document was allegedly signed by him in August 2022. A ghost signature from beyond the bench? Highly unlikely. The Chief Justice in office at that time was Martha Koome.
Strike three came in the form of digital verification—or lack thereof. The Judiciary maintains a secure portal to authenticate certificates issued to practicing advocates. A quick check on Mwenda’s documents returned no match.
And just like that, the gavel came crashing down—not in Mwenda’s favor, but on his credibility, leaving behind a trail of questions. How did he manage to slip through the cracks? How many more like him might be lurking in the shadows of Kenya’s justice system?
Mwenda, once celebrated as a courtroom prodigy, now finds himself on the opposite end of the justice system, with a long legal road ahead—and this time, it’s very real.
Stay tuned. The next hearing set to be on 22nd May 2025, promises more revelations in this bizarre saga of courtroom deception.
By Kelly Were.
