BY SAM ALFAN.High Court has declined to stop prosecution of the city lawyer who is among suspects named to have allegedly forged documents to secure a loan from CBA bank.
Justice John Mativo certified the application urgent and the same admitted for hearing on priority basis.
“The question of whether leave sought shall be granted and if whether leave granted shall operate as stay should be determined inter parties” ordered Mativo.
The lawyer is named among suspects involved in forging of land documents to secure a loans worth Sh 449 million from CBA bank has move to the High court to stop his prosecution.
Mr Kithi seeks the court to bar the Director of Public Prosecution and police from arresting him and charging him in relation to the a property in Dagoretti at Riruta ,Nairobi county pending hearing and determination of the application.
“I urge the court to issue an order prohibiting the DPP and police from further investigating, intimadating, instigating on acts towards my arrest and prosecution in criminal courts on matters touching on the legality or title deeds or legal charges relating to the disputed properties,”says Kithi.
In certificate of urgency, Lawyer Kithi moved to court a few days after the Directorate of Criminal Investigations recommended for his prosecution together with other 16 individuals and companies over the loss of million of Shillings fraud from CBA Bank.
It is alleged that Kithi together with the sixteen others forged land documents to secure five loans worth Sh 449 million from CBA Bank.
“My firm is one of the external lawyers for CBA, that receives instructions from the firm’s legal department to register security documents including charges, mortgages and deed of rental assignment,” Kithi argued.
The lawyer in his court is also seeking orders not to be investigated on the legality or other wise titles and or legal charges created over properties known as LR no. 209/ 1817, LR no 209/12513, LR no. 209/ 2489/34 situated in Dagoretti in Riruta Nairobi county.
” The applicant’s reputation and ability to earn a living has been severely damaged without reasonable cause by the deliberate publishing, leaking and dissemination of the report in the national local daily without justifiable cause” claim Kithi.
Kithi avers that in 2016 there the was fraud between Commercial Bank of Kenya, Kijunje Gardens Ltd and Wardpa holdings limited and there pending cases in court over the same matter.
According to court documents seen by NairobiTimez , he further claims that Mombasa High Court had stayed any further investigations over the matter but despite the orders the matter was still being investigated by the DCI who has since recommended the prosecution of various firms of valuers, advocates and other professionals including him.
He claims that his reputation has been damaged by the publishing of their arrests and arraignment and investigations by a National Media.
“That the documents involved the purported forgery of signatures of so many government officers such that the transactions involves a bank owned by the Family of the President of the Republic of Kenya and out of panic of the entire government machinery has towed a line of reasoning that purports to target the borrowers and all the professionals involved in the failure of the borrower to repay a loan from the bank,” reads the court papers.
Others who are likely to be prosecuted with Kethi include Edna Khaemba, Gladys Mboya and Lloyd Masika, a real estate valuer, while Mboya Wangong’u and Waiyaki Advocates, Khaemba and Khaemba Advocates and Kithi & Company Advocates.
It is alleged that the directors of Ndonga Limited, Wardpa Holdings Limited and Kinjune Garden Limited, Commercial Bank of Africa Limited officials, M/s Khaemba and Advocates, the external advocates of CBA and the external valuers of CBA conspired to defraud Commercial Bank of Africa Sh449, 051,999 using forged documents.
It is also said that the the company at the centre of the forgery scam had proposed to purchase a property and gave a forged title as security.
According to police, they claim that investigation at CBA reveals the some individuals know as Kangethes had used fake documents to secure the loan, helped by Warui, the relationship manager who introduced them as clean clients and Edna’s law firm Khaemba and Khaemba Advocates.
Police says Khaemba was at the centre of the transaction having made the bank to believe that the deal was clean until February 2016 when one of the lenders advertised plans to auction the property in their custody.
It is alleged that a Sh 56 million borrowed was obtained to finance a commercial property in Nairobi’s Ngara estate, owned by a client of Khaemba and Khaemba Advocates.
The security was approved by Tysons Limited, CBA’s external valuer and searches at Ministry of lands was handled by Mboya, Wangong’u and Waiyaki Advocates.
It is further alleged that a further loan of Sh 28.8 million was advanced after the said Kangethes presented a forged document at the bank and the process handled by Warui, the relationship manager.
The racket allegedly further managed to secure a further two loans, of Sh100 million and Sh160 million using the same tricks but later exposed.
At some point last year the the over three Kangethes were charged with criminal charges over theft of Sh 100 million from CBK. The case is still pending in court.
Mr Kithi documents filed in court are very detailed explaining about the incidents how they took place.
The matter will be mentioned inter parties for further directions on 9 July.
