LSK sounds alarm over fake lawyers working with Embu County

The Law Society of Kenya’s Embu chapter has criticised the county for allegedly working with individuals masquerading as lawyers.

Embu’s LSK chair Rose Migwi said Friday that these questionable characters were engaged for the verification and certification of county staff documents during a headcount to establish the number of county workers.

Ms Migwi said two women purporting to be lawyers were arrested after their office sought the help of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations ( DCI) on Thursday.

They were found stamping and verifying documents during the headcount at the Kenya School of Government (KSG) she said, adding they might be Embu County employees.

The chair said that once the investigation is completed, they will pursue the two women’s prosecution as part of efforts to tame the crime.

“We are putting every other masquerader within the region on notice. We are coming for you,” she stated.

Mr Kirimi Gwantai, LSK Embu’s head of compliance, said the Embu Bar Association arrested two culprits after storming the KSF headcount but that other suspects escaped.

Mr Gwantai regretted that the credibility of the headcount would be questioned because of the masqueraders.

He faulted Embu for not asking the bar association for a list of all active registered lawyers practicing in the county.

“We did not know that there was such an exercise. They could have asked us to provide a list of our compliant members, their practicing certificates,  practicing status, sample signatures and even their stamps,” he stated, adding the people verifying and certifying the documents were just stamping them without comparing them with originals.

Mr Gwantai further said it was amusing to find the purported lawyers working under trees.

He said: “When did advocates start holding chambers under trees, purporting to be doing legitimate verification?”

Mr Dennis Munene, a member of the Embu Bar Association, warned all quack lawyers in the country, saying the LSK would go after them.

“We are tired of individuals soiling our names. Advocates cannot conduct  themselves in a manner that is unbecoming. These people are not advocates,” he said.

Noting that many documents could be circulating in government and private offices without proper authentication, he asked the public to always check the status of advocates before engaging them, to avoid.

LSK Embu said it would write to the county about the issue, as well as to their head office, concerning the conduct of lawyers in that county.

Mr Emilio Kathuri, Embu’s county executive for public service, explained that the county did not hire any quack lawyer for the exercise and did not ask for documents as these steps were handled by a government body.

He said they contracted the Institute of Human Resource Management asking it to verify and certify county employees’ documents.

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