Japanese Company on the Spot After Hiring Fake Lawyer

A foreign firm is under fire after it emerged that it had contracted a fake lawyer to fight its blacklisting from public procurement in Kenya.

According to reports, the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) asked the police to investigate Japanese contractor EAA Company Limited for allegedly hiring Calvince Omondi Omino and Klein & Omimo Associates after it was blacklisted from participating in public procurement.

EAA was handed a three-year ban by PPRA after ruling that the firm used forged documents in three bids for the lucrative Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) tender between 2011 and 2019.

The Japanese firm lost the case against PPRA at the High Court Judicial review and moved to the lower Magistrate court where they obtained orders barring their blacklisting.

PPRA filed a complaint with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) after it got word that Omino who obtained the orders is not a registered advocate, and his law firm does not exist.

Further reports indicate that Omino Associates failed to disclose to the Chief Magistrate that they had failed to obtain similar orders in High Court.

Auditor General Nancy Gathungu in 2020 initiated debarment proceedings against EAA and another contractor hired by KEBS, Auto Terminal Japan, after finding out that both Japanese firms used forged documents in their bids for the lucrative tender.

Auto Terminal Japan managed to secure court orders barring the PPRA from proceeding with debarment proceedings against the firm.

A probe by the DCI and the National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee arrived at a similar conclusion as Gathungu’s in regard to EAA’s forgery.

The complaint was filed by PPRA on February 7, 2022 and requests the DCI to probe the alleged quack.

“The firm of Klein & Omino Associates which ostensibly drew the pleadings on behalf of EAA Company Limited is registered as “agents and property managers” and is therefore not a firm of advocates.

“Further, Calvince Omondi Omino who is the proprietor of the said firm of Klein & Omino Associates as per the official search records from the Business Registration Service is not admitted as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya,” the PPRA says in its complaint to the DCI.

After Mr Omino’s firm filed proceedings at the Chief Magistrate’s Court, the PPRA did a search of both the lawyer and his firm on the LSK website, which revealed no results.

PPRA sought clarity from LSK whether Omino is licensed to practice law. LSK responded stating that neither Omino nor the law firm is licensed.

LSK also recommended that Omino be prosecuted for impersonating an advocate. In Kenya, impersonation carries a maximum prison sentence of three years.