The Judiciary has raised concerns about the increased use of forged documents to try to procure favourable decisions in the wake of a fake court order in a case involving betting firm SportPesa.
It issued a public notice on Wednesday over the rising cases of fake rulings, court orders, warrants of attachments and sale of property, as well as notices to show cause.
The bogus court documents have been used to influence judicial decisions, the sale and transfer of property and the blockade of activities.
The notice followed the publication of a story in the Business Daily indicating a forged court order was used to lock out businessman Paul Ndung’u from participating in a dispute over the fight for betting firm SportPesa, placing a top lawyer under the Directorate of Criminal Investigations radar.
“We wish to bring to your attention that we have noticed a budding criminal activity involving generating, presenting to officers of the court and otherwise using forged court documents,” said the notice wired to the Law Society of Kenya.
“These are criminal activities, which threaten the administration of justice.”
The Judiciary advised the public to verify court documents through the online document tracking portal and the unique tracking number.
In the SportPesa case, details emerged in a judgment where the Court of Appeal reversed its earlier ruling that had blocked the businessman from participating in cases pending in court over control of SportPesa assets and shares.
The court order was couched to make it appear that Mr Ndung’u had been blocked from filing or participating in cases on behalf of the betting firm, including one where he sought to contest the use of the SportPesa trademark by Milestone Games Ltd.
The High Court order restrained the businessman from dealing in Pevans East Africa, which owned the SportPesa brand, for two weeks ending January 24, 2023.
However, the fictitious order, which had different wordings, indicated that an injunction had been granted blocking Mr Ndung’u or his agents from dealing in Pevans East Africa in perpetuity.
This court order was filed in the Court of Appeal, and judges relied on it to block Mr Ndung’u from participating in a suit where a consent allowing Milestone Games Ltd to use the SportPesa trademark had been challenged.
The disputed consent was said to be inked by Milestone Games and Betting Control and Licensing Board, whose five of seven directors disowned the agreement and rejected claims that they had approved the use of the SportPesa trademark.
Mr Ndung’u had appealed to join the case challenging the consent, but his application was dismissed by a bench of three judges of the Court of Appeal on February 11, 2023.
The businessman argued that Milestone filed “a fraudulent manufactured court order” that misled the court into dismissing his application to join the case.
The fake order in part led Justices Daniel Musinga, Mumbi Ngugi and George Odunga to reverse the 2023 decision of the Court of Appeal and reckoned that Mr Ndung’u had a right to participate in the suit.
“Turning to the orders of injunction issued by the High Court on 12th January 2023, Paul (Ndung’u) stated, and rightly so, in our view, that the said orders were interim in nature and lapsed by operation of the law as they had not been extended. That averment was not challenged by Milestone,” said the three judges.
The judgment has triggered investigations of the top lawyer by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations for forgery in a case listed under OB 23/08/09/2025.
