Police in Nairobi have reportedly arrested a woman for the offence of impersonating an advocate of the High Court of Kenya.
In a statement on Monday, October 16, Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Eric Theuri said Sharon Adunya Atieno had stolen the identity of one Sharon Atieno Obade and forged a national identity under the alias and fake practising certificate to aid her illegal enterprise.
“This afternoon together with the Nairobi Branch Rapid Response Team we caused the arrest of Sharon Adunya Atieno who had impersonated one of our Advocates and was using the alias Sharon Atieno Adunya Obade,” Theuri said in a statement on X, formally Twitter.
The LSK boss added: “She is currently held at Capitol Police Station pending investigations and arraignment in Court.”
Theuri further vowed to step up the fight against fake advocates in the country in the wake of rising cases of identity theft.
“We thank our members for alerting us of this incident. We will not relent in this fight. The operation to rid masquerades will be intensive, thorough and unrelenting,” Theuri stated.
This afternoon together with the Nairobi Branch Rapid Response Team we caused the arrest of Sharon Adunya Atieno who had impersonated one of our Advocates and was using the alias Sharon Atieno Adunya Obade.
She stole the identity of Sharon Atieno Obade and had forged a national…
— Eric theuri (@etadv) October 16, 2023
The arrest comes amid ongoing investigations into several cases of similar nature by the Inspector General of Police Japheth Koome.
The most recent case is the highly publicised suspected theft of the identity of Brian Mwenda Ntwiga by one Brian Mwenda.
Mwenda’s cover was blown by LSK’s Nairobi Branch after representing a number of clients in court.
According to Theuri, Mwenda stole the identity of Ntwiga through a fraud scheme known as Business Email Compromise (BEC).
Reacting to Mwenda’s case, the Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga on Saturday expressed concerns over the rising cases of fraudsters impersonating lawyers in the country.
Ingonga directed the Inspector General of the National Police Service to conduct comprehensive and expedited investigations into the matter.
Ingonga noted that upon receiving the inquiry file from the police, the ODPP will conduct an independent review of the evidence in accordance with the constitution, relevant statutory provisions, and the ODPP decision to charge guidelines, 2019.
“Impersonators threaten not only the legal practice but the larger access to justice. Indeed, they pose a serious threat to the practice of law and are likely to have committed various offences under the laws of Kenya, including but not limited to (a) an unqualified person acting as an advocate contrary to section 31(1) as read with section 31(2)(c) of the Advocates Act; (b) pretending to be an advocate contrary to section 33 as read with section 85(1) of the Advocates Act; (c) identity theft of advocates contrary to section 29 of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, No. 5 of 2018,” the DPP stated.
