Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
A student posing as a High Court lawyer has been arrested in Kenya after winning dozens of cases. The man has reportedly demanded that he be admitted to the bar despite being uncovered as a fraud.
Before his recent arrest, Brian Mwenda "argued 26 cases before High Court Judges, Magistrates, and Court of Appeal Judges," the Facts East Africa social media page reported on Thursday, adding that he won all 26 cases.
The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) confirmed on Friday that Mwenda assumed the identity of a real lawyer named Brian Mwenda in August 2022, using the real advocate's details to register himself as a member of the bar.
His ruse was discovered when he attempted to sign in to the LSK database in September with an incorrect email address, the LSK said. Mwenda asked the society's IT department for help logging in, prompting the department to check his credentials against those of the real Mwenda. When the mismatch was discovered, LSK staff alerted police, who launched a "manhunt" for the phoney attorney.
Mwenda's current situation is unclear. Facts East Africa reported him arrested on Thursday, while the LSK's statement called for his "immediate arrest," implying that he is still free.
In a further twist, a man claiming to be Mwenda made a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, explaining that he "hacked into a website for lawyers and added my picture to make it seem like [I'm] a certified lawyer."
"The cases I won should be upheld," he argued. "The law wasn't depending on who was representing who. I put up strong arguments, produced evidence and presented logical reasoning."
"The Courts should test my knowledge of law...and admit me to the bar," he wrote. "Winning 26 cases without stepping in law school makes me a genius. Kenya has many professional Lawyers who've never won any case in a court of law or who can't stand in the dock and defend a case."
The LSK has taken a dim view of Mwenda's scam, however. "The Council of the Law Society recognizes that masqueraders pose a serious threat to the practice of law and is determined to take decisive action to deal with this issue," it wrote in its statement.
Comment: Lawyer is as lawyer does. Mwenda seems to have demonstrated high competence as legal counsel. Creative, too.
Reader Comments
I wonder if 'the frisson of crime-y-ness' helped him win the 26 cases.
Maybe if he'd had the papers he would have just been a mediocre, run of the mill lawyer.
Who can tell?
Brian Mwenda reportedly claimed that his record makes him a "genius"Nuff egoism, Brian.
I would be shocked - if I was a lawyer or doctor.
Ferdinand Waldo DemaraThis guy is pretty bad...
"He managed to improvise successful major surgeries and fend off infection with generous amounts of penicillin. His most notable surgical practices were performed on some sixteen Korean combat injuries who were loaded onto the Cayuga. All eyes turned to Demara, as several men needed urgent surgery. After ordering personnel to transport them to the ship's operating room and prep them for treatment, Demara disappeared to his room with a textbook on general surgery and speed-read the steps for the procedures that lay ahead, including major chest surgery.
All the men survived. Accounts of his heroic efforts ended up in Canadian newspapers, reaching the mother of the real Joseph Cyr, who was quietly practicing medicine in Grand Falls, New Brunswick. When news of the impersonation reached the Cayuga, still on station off Korea, Captain James Plomer at first refused to believe them. Demara, however, confessed and returned to Canada to face a court-martial. Faced with the embarrassment of having allowed an impostor into the Royal Canadian Navy's ranks, a board of enquiry instead chose to quietly dismiss him and force his deportation to the United States"....[Link]
Clark Rockefeller - The Great Pretender...[Link]
Ferdinand Waldo DemaraWhich is another data point in the chain of evidence - that Western healthcare is nothing but a fraud.
"He managed to improvise successful major surgeries and fend off infection with generous amounts of penicillin. His most notable surgical practices were performed on some sixteen Korean combat injuries ...
Captain James Plomer at first refused to believe them. Demara, however, confessed and returned to Canada to face a court-martial.That seems odd. How can a civilian be court-martialed ?!?
Now let me rephrase that: an entity or more con-vince humans that what they are about to inject into them will save their lives and they administer it to millions under the watch care of the government later to have it revealed that it causes much harm and death and they go free and are lauded as a Savior?
So it's all OK when men call good evil and evil good...
Seems like I read that some where...
Allowing the utilization of "street lawyers" would cut into the income stream of the credentialed "legal professionals" and the law schools & professors that produce them.
It is unfortunate that he had to lie and deceive in order to practice law, but his willingness to lie and deceive just further proves that he is extremely well-suited to join the ranks of the legal "profession" and he should fit right in.