A serious legal controversy has emerged involving Senior Counsel Fred Ojiambo and his law firm partner Peter Gachuhi of Kaplan & Stratton, following allegations of forgery, false affidavits, and interference with investigations in two separate but high-profile disputes.
The accusations place the firm’s leadership under intense scrutiny and raise questions about professional conduct, conflict of interest, and the handling of sensitive legal documents.
Fred Ojiambo, who is 80 years old, has for decades been regarded as one of Kenya’s most respected advocates. He is also known as a church elder at Nairobi Baptist Church.
His long career and public image as a principled Christian lawyer are now being challenged by claims that he played a role in facilitating the filing of false court documents and shielding suspects from investigation.
The controversy largely centers on an alleged forged will belonging to the late former Attorney General James Karugu.
At the heart of the case is Ojiambo’s law partner, Peter Gachuhi, who has been accused together with six other suspects of participating in what has been described as an elaborate forgery scheme.
The accusations were raised by Karugu’s daughter, Victoria Nyambura Karugu, who maintains that the will presented in court is not genuine.
Nyambura claims the document contains poor grammar and errors that do not match her father’s known writing style. She also alleges that the initials appearing on the will were forged and that forensic analysis revealed it was a crude cut-and-paste fabrication.
According to her court filings, the will does not reflect her father’s intentions and was designed to unlawfully redistribute his estate.
The matter has drawn the attention of the Office of the Attorney General, now led by Dorcas Oduor. In official court documents, the Attorney General has supported the actions of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, stating clearly that forgery is a criminal offence that must be fully investigated and prosecuted.
Attempts by the suspects to block investigations have been described by the State as an abuse of the court process.
Courtroom drama intensified when Ojiambo allegedly declined to hand over the disputed will to investigators, claiming that he had obtained a court order preventing the DCI from accessing it. However, later filings showed that this claim was false.
As a result, Gachuhi was eventually compelled to surrender the document for forensic examination.
Further complications arose when Ojiambo was accused of trying to involve the Director of Public Prosecutions in a manner that would interfere with the succession case.
That request was rejected, adding to concerns about possible misuse of legal influence.The scandal has also widened beyond the will dispute.
Former Cabinet Minister Raphael Tuju has reported Ojiambo to the DCI, accusing him of facilitating a false affidavit in a commercial dispute involving the East African Development Bank.
Tuju claims that Ojiambo’s actions exposed his family to risk while contradicting the values he publicly professes as a Christian and church elder.In a public statement, Tuju said that Kaplan & Stratton had long built a reputation as a respected international law firm, but that recent events involving senior partner Peter Gachuhi had damaged that image.
He accused Ojiambo of presenting himself as morally upright while allegedly filing misleading documents in court to support schemes meant to deprive him and his family of property acquired over many years.
In another twist, six suspects in the Karugu will case, including a pastor from Nyandarua, have appointed Ojiambo himself to represent them in court.
This has raised strong concerns about conflict of interest, given that his law partner is one of the accused and the firm has been linked to the handling of the disputed will for over two years.
Nyambura has since applied to formally join the High Court proceedings, saying her earlier exclusion from the case was deliberate and unfair.
She has submitted hundreds of pages of evidence, including what she says are findings from the DCI that were not presented to Justice Mwamuye when the suspects obtained orders stopping their arrest and arraignment.
Both Ojiambo and Gachuhi could face severe professional consequences, including possible removal from Kaplan & Stratton for gross misconduct and criminal penalties under the law.
The unfolding cases now place one of Kenya’s most established legal firms under unprecedented pressure, with its legacy and credibility hanging in the balance.
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