City lawyer Benard Odero Okello has been arrested after investigations established that forged documents bearing fake signatures of three Kenya County Government Workers Union officials were presented before the Nairobi Employment and Labour Relations Court.
Odero, of Benard Odero & Company Advocates, was arrested at his office in The Westery building in Westlands, Nairobi, following a directive by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) to have him charged over the forged documents.
The case dates back to Nairobi Cause No. E068 of 2022, where Odero presented a Change of Signatory & Fee Note Agreement claiming that three Nairobi Branch officials of the Kenya County Government Workers Union had signed the document.
The agreement stated that Odero was to receive Sh150 million upon conclusion of a case in which he claimed to have represented the officials.
The three officials, however, rejected the document and denied ever signing or executing the agreement. Their complaint triggered investigations into the authenticity of the documents placed before the court.
Investigators submitted the disputed documents, together with specimens of the officials’ known signatures, to a forensic document examiner for analysis.
The forensic examination delivered a clear finding.
The signatures on the disputed documents were forged and did not belong to the three officials.
The findings strengthened the case against Odero and prompted the ODPP to direct that he be charged with two counts of forgery and one count of uttering a false document.
The directive was issued on September 2, 2026, after investigators completed their work.
Odero was then summoned to report to Parklands Police Station to face the charges. Instead, police said he ignored the summons, forcing officers to begin a manhunt for the lawyer.
The search eventually led officers to his Westlands office, where his arrest turned into a dramatic confrontation.
According to the police account, Odero threatened to jump from the eighth-floor window of the building in an attempt to avoid arrest. Officers had to deal with the tense situation before finally managing to take him into custody.
The confrontation did not end there. Police said Odero fought back when officers attempted to handcuff him and bit two police officers who were trying to restrain him.
His conduct during the arrest has now added more trouble to an already serious case.
Besides the forgery and uttering a false document charges approved by the ODPP, police are set to prefer additional charges of resisting arrest and assaulting police officers.
The case puts the spotlight on the use of forged documents in court proceedings, particularly where such documents are used to support financial claims.
The Sh150 million fee agreement is at the centre of the dispute, with the forensic examination providing investigators with evidence that the signatures used on the documents were not genuine.
Odero will now face the criminal charges arising from the investigation as police move to complete the process of taking him before court.
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