Why LSK wants Brian Mwenda, his accomplices arrested

The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) now wants legal action taken against Brian Mwenda, a man who has allegedly been impersonating a city lawyer.

In a statement dated Friday, October 13, LSK President Eric Theuri called for the immediate arrest of Mwenda and his accomplices, and an investigation launched into his actions.

"We have invited the DCI to send their investigators to launch a massive manhunt and the immediate arrest of the masquerader, (Brian Mwenda) and all his accomplices,” LSK noted.

The Society also says it has commissioned a review of its protocols on membership and approval, owing to this latest security breach incident.

Theuri explained that the impersonator (Mwenda) was able to access LSK’s system through a system known as Business Email Compromise (BEC), a common international fraud scheme.

“A criminal in this case, Brian Mwenda, identified a genuine advocate status as being inactive, made contact to the secretariat to make an application for payment of his Practicing Certificate but he couldn’t because his email credentials are incorrect,” said LSK.

It has also emerged that Mwenda, upon gaining access to another lawyer’s account, changed the profile picture, placed his, and applied for a practising certificate, which he would also make payment for.

“However, his application was not processed since he was required to provide documents including the certificate of business incorporation which is an additional security measure; which unless supplied and verified the application cannot be processed,” Theuri said.

Mwenda, now under scrutiny, is accused of identity theft, presenting himself as Brian Mwenda Ntwiga, a registered city advocate.

He (Mwenda) would refer to himself as “Brian N Mwenda” on LSK’s system.

LSK has since cautioned the public against the impersonator, for allegedly posing as an advocate and defrauding unsuspecting clients.

It has however assured that there was no data compromised on its portal and all is safe.