Acquitted lawyer seeks Sh25m from ex-clients

The Lawyer claims the charges cost him his career of more than 30 years besides affecting his life, wife and children. [Istockphoto]

A senior lawyer has sued two businessmen, seeking compensation for alleged harm and injury following forgery charges pressed against him in 2014 by the State.

Stephen Oyugi Okello claims that what happened between 2014 when he was charged and 2021 when he was acquitted amounted to an injustice that has allegedly been costly to his career, reputation and family life.

In his case filed before the High Court against businessmen Ashraf Savani, Madatali Chatur and Right End Properties Limited, Mr Okello is seeking more than Sh25 million as compensation for what he claims was a set-up.

He claims the charges cost him his career of more than 30 years besides affecting his life, wife and children.

He also wants the court to order the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to investigate the case afresh and have all those involved charged.

The lawyer is seeking Sh15 million together with 14 per cent interest per annum from March 5, 2011, being the legal fees he paid his lawyers to defend him in eight cases that arose after the prosecution.

He also wants Sh10.2 million in legal fees for the 68 days he allegedly lost attending court for the criminal case.

Okello claims he was charged and prosecuted for another person's crimes.

He has lined up his wife, pastor and a lawyer who represented and bailed him out in the criminal case as witnesses.

"The experience that I have been put through by the defendants has adversely affected my health, emotional well-being, social stability and professional standing. I have lost friends because no right-thinking member of the society can trust a fraudster and a criminal as I have been portrayed as such," says Okello.

He says on January 29, 2011, he received a letter from Right End Properties Limited instructing him to collect some documents to lodge and register at the Lands office.

Okello, in his case, says the documents included a grant together with a completed application for registration forms, stamp duty, rent and rates receipts, rates clearance certificate and consent to transfer.

According to him, Savani invited him for a meeting at Diamond Plaza in Highridge, Nairobi, and the businessman instructed him to collect the documents from another law firm. They agreed that the fee was Sh70,000 as his role was limited to presenting and lodging the documents. He got Sh20,000 as down-payment.

The lawyer says the only missing features on the application form issued to him were a signature, date and address.

"I, in the circumstances, filled out my postal address, and the date and appended my signature on the said application form," he says, adding that this was in the presence of Chatur's agent.

Okello says on March 1, 2011, he received a call from DCI Nairobi area regarding a forgery matter.

He says the police showed him transfer documents that were alleged to be from him and asked him to write a statement. He says at the police station, he was shocked to find a forged court order and a notice of withdrawal of a caveat alleged to be from his law firm.

"I denied knowledge of the said documents in my statement, save for the first application from dated January 30, 2011, which I had processed," he says.

Things went quiet until March 3, 2014, when he was summoned by the DCI and subsequently charged on March 5, 2014 with forgery.

Okello claims that Savani and Chatur did not reply to his calls afterwards. He says the two businessmen ought to have told the police the truth behind the documents.

The lawyer narrates that he filed the case seeking to quash his prosecution and the then High Court judge Weldon Korir observed that there was no evidence to connect him to the forgery.

The case will be mentioned on January 17, 2023.