NAIROBI,Kenya Sep 11 – A city lawyer accused of presenting forged documents in a Sh150 million fee dispute before the Employment and Labour Relations Court was arrested after he allegedly threatened to jump from the eighth floor of his Westlands office to evade police.
Benard Odero Okello of Benard Odero & Company Advocates was arrested at The Westery building in Westlands, Nairobi, following a directive by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) to have him charged over alleged forgery and uttering a false document.
According to investigators, Mr Odero threatened to jump through a window when police officers arrived at his office to arrest him after he failed to honour a summons requiring him to report to Parklands Police Station.
“The suspect resisted arrest and, in the process, assaulted two police officers who were attempting to restrain and handcuff him,” investigators said.
The officers eventually managed to arrest him, but police allege that the lawyer resisted arrest and bit two officers who were attempting to handcuff him.
He is now expected to face additional charges of resisting arrest and assaulting police officers, alongside the forgery-related charges.
The arrest followed investigations into a complaint lodged by three officials of the Kenya County Government Workers Union, Nairobi Branch.
The officials had raised concerns over documents filed by Mr Odero in Nairobi ELRC Cause No. E068 of 2022, in which he allegedly claimed that they had executed a Change of Signatory and Fee Note Agreement authorising him to receive Sh150 million upon conclusion of a case in which he claimed to have represented them.
The three officials, however, denied signing or executing the agreement.
The disputed documents, together with specimens of the complainants’ known signatures, were subsequently submitted to a forensic document examiner for analysis.
The forensic examination established that the signatures appearing on the disputed documents did not match those of the complainants, according to the investigative findings cited by the ODPP.
The findings supported the complainants’ claims that the documents presented before the court had been forged.
Following the investigations, the ODPP on September 2, 2026 directed that Mr Odero be charged with two counts of forgery and one count of uttering a false document.
Police subsequently summoned the lawyer to present himself at Parklands Police Station, but investigators say he failed to comply.
This prompted officers to launch a manhunt for him, eventually tracing him to his office in Westlands where they moved to arrest him.
The confrontation reportedly escalated when the lawyer threatened to jump from the eighth floor in an apparent attempt to evade arrest.
Police eventually subdued him, although investigators allege that he resisted and assaulted two officers by biting them as they tried to restrain him.
The additional charges are expected to be preferred against him as investigators complete the process of presenting him before court.
The case centres on the alleged use of documents containing forged signatures in court proceedings, with the investigators relying on the forensic examination to establish whether the signatures on the disputed agreement were genuine.
