Controversial City lawyer Guy Spencer Elms is the proverbial cat of nine lives when it comes to court cases. After getting out scot-free on the Anglo Leasing scandal even after being named in the Panama Papers, he has shockingly survived yet another case where a judgment has been ruled in his favour, despite the strong evidence against him, following the intervention of the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
City Magistrate Joseline Onyango, ruling in the case in which Agnes Kagure had filed a criminal case against the lawyer for forging a will to lay claim on prime property in Karen, said there were inconsistencies in evidence despite the National Land Commission CEO Chavangio Aziz Tom withdrawing a report that Guy Spencer’s defense used to fight the criminal charges.
The parcels of land in question belonged to the late Roger Bryan Robson who died in August 2012. City businesswoman Agnes Kagure says she had bought the land while Guy Elms argues the late appointed him the executor of his will to sell the property and donate the proceeds to environmental conservation activities.
While the ruling was unusual Guy Spencer can be freshly charged as he was released under section 87A of the Criminal Procedure Code – and Agnes Kagure is likely to appeal. Lawyer Messiah Micheal Osudwa holding brief for Wandugi Kirathe requested the City Magistrate for a certified copy of the proceedings and ruling. He is planning to challenge the ruling and get fresh charges against Guy Spencer.
This has also gone against a judgement by Justice Odunga who had ordered Guy to defend his case after he attempted to stop the prosecution in court. His case was dismissed at his cost.
Guy Spencer Elms where the tax payers may have lost a Ksh21 billion, is fighting to be confirmed the executor of the Will of the late British millionaire Roger Byran Robson.
Since 2017 when the cases started, Spencer has found himself on a wild goose chase as he struggles to find authentic documents to prove his case. Armed with the Will, which would be flagged as a forgery, Guy Spencer Elms rushed to the High Court after Robson’s death seeking administrative powers as the sole executor.
This were his first steps in the journey to consolidate and transfer to his name assets left behind by Roger Bryan. Earlier using the ‘Will’, he liquidated the deceased’s shares and stocks running into several hundred million shillings.
But soon it emerged that the Will was, after all, not authentic. He has been fighting off forgery charges in court, where he has been unable to prove the sanctity of the will. Reviewing various documents relating to the will, a keen person can easily spot the glaring differences in the Robson’s signatures, with one being fake.
Also, the Will was never registered as required under Kenyan law, while court testimonies by associates of Spencer confirm that Guy was the author of the Will that apparently granted him executorial powers.
A witness of Spencer shocked the Nairobi High Court in August last year when she testified against his argument, confirming that Spencer was the author of the disputed document.
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Ms Ann Mwalulu, a partner at Archer & Wilcock Advocates, revealed in the High Court that Spencer was indeed the author of the Will, which was backdated to 24th Match 1997. She said by the time the will was drawn she was no longer working at the law firm. “I vividly recalled that in early 2005, Guy sent a driver to pick the disputed will from our law firm,” said Ms Mwalulu said.
She said Archer & Wilcock Advocates were never given instructions by the late Roger Brian to release the file and was not aware the estate was to be distributed. In fact in his application for orders of prohibition against forgery charges at the Milimani Law Courts in November 2016, Spencer confirmed the Will was authored by Archer & Wilcock Advocates and not Roger Brian.
“The author of he forged signatures has a higher pen speed that Mr Roger could not attain at the time the documents were signed due to his age save for his health,” he said.
A forensic document examiner, voice and acoustic analyst who inspected Guy Spencer’s documents declared them forgeries. Mr Antipas Nyanjwa, who was assigned by the CEO of the National Land Commission said thus in his report: “The alleged forgeries by Mr. Guy Spencer have been examined by the police handwriting expert who in his opinion found them to be forgeries.”
He said he found ‘no agreement’ between the signatures as they differ fundamentally in all characteristics from Roger Robson’s style of writing. His name had even wrong spelling on his letter of resignation which, the expert noted, was unusual.
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“The author of he forged signatures has a higher pen speed that Mr Roger could not attain at the time the documents were signed due to his age save for his health,” he said.
He added that he had analysed Robson’s signatures over a span of 34 years and their variations but they maintained the consistency with exceptions of variations that are natural in hand writing.
Besides, Spencer has been unable to produce the original titles to the land in dispute. He has tried on several occasions to have the registrar do a search of the title, admitting in the 2012 letters that he did not have an original copy of the title for a land he claims was left in his hands.
Where is the original title?
“We are yet to locate the original title that is why we have asked for a search. We have produced an official search dated 16th June 2006 and faint copy of an Indenture dated 28th December 1955 which has a copy of Plan Number 45457 for the 5.18 acre plots which comprise the property,” he wrote to the Chief Registrar of Titles in September 2012.
At one point, Spencer put forward a claim that the land was still charged to a mortgage facility and consequently sought to procure an invalid discharge (re-conveyance) of mortgage document dated 2016 as the title of the land.
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However, it turned out that the only mortgage charge to the said land was discharged in 1993 upon full payment of the loan facility and the lender, Habib Bank, released the original title to Roger Bryan Robson, who passed it the current rightful owner, Thomas Mutaha, in 2010.
The re-conveyance by Spencer was not dully registered with the Ministry of Lands and was executed in violation of the original title deed as required in law. It would also have been in contravention of High Court orders for the preservation of the late Roger Bryan estate pending determination of all dispute matters pertaining to the estate.
Habib bank sealed the fate in a June 18th 2015 letter to Spencer, through M.A. Khan Advocates. “We make reference to your letter dated 15th June 2015 and inform you that we are unable to execute the conveyance until”…a pending court matter relating to the title is determined, among other reasons.
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