Court dismisses DPP plea to drop case against lawyer Guy Spencer

A court in Nairobi on Wednesday dismissed Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Renson Ingonga’s application to terminate criminal proceedings against lawyer Guy Spencer Elms in relation to Sh100 million Karen property.

Milimani Court Magistrate Benmark Ekhumbi, in his ruling on Wednesday, said that the DPP did not inform the complainant in the case before making the application.

He stated that although the application was made following High Court Judge Hillary Chemitei’s judgment that the will at the heart of the case was valid, the verdict was not a bar against the criminal proceedings.

He observed that DPP had twice sought to withdraw the criminal trial despite having approved it the previous year.

He said that since the DPP had not been consulted, Spencer should take a plea as the DPP factors in the views of the complainant.

The complainant in the case is businesswoman Agnes Kagure.

“ To avoid such akward situations where the DPP speaks from both sides of the mouth, now we have a case, now we don’t, where the DPP is accused of arbitrarily withdrawing the case against the accused person, the DPP ought to systematically consult the Investigating Officer and or the victims before arriving on the decision and also in tandem with the decision with guidelines to charge 2019,” said Ekhumbi.

Spencer has been at the centre of a decade-long legal battle over the alleged forgery of a British billionaire’s Will involving a Sh100 million Karen estate.

Spencer faced five charges, including forgery, uttering false documents, and attempting to fraudulently acquire property. However, the DPP intervened, invoking Section 87(a) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to withdraw the charges.

“The DPP seeks to withdraw charges against the intended accused person, Spencer. Our application is premised on a recent High Court judgment that validated the contested Will,” the state prosecutor informed the court.

The prosecution stated that pursuing the matter further was no longer in the interest of justice.

“Our application is premised on Article 157(6) and (11) of the Constitution and relevant sections of the ODPP Act. The same decision to drop the charges is informed by a judgment by Justice Chemitei on June 19, 2025, which validated the will that is the subject matter of the criminal charges before this court.”

Justice Hillary Chemitei declared that the will authored by the late British national, Roger Bryan Robson, dated March 24, 1997, was valid and had been lawfully witnessed by a qualified advocate.

The ruling effectively dismissed allegations of forgery raised by several parties, including the businesswoman and politician

“You will notice that the High Court found that the objection by the businesswoman lacked merit, and the same was dismissed with costs that have not been settled to date,” Spencer’s lawyer, Davis Osiemo, told the trial magistrate while supporting the DPP move.

“Bringing this criminal proceeding based on the same will is an attempt by the complainants to appeal a High Court decision in a Magistrate’s Court. There can’t be any other abuse of the court process than this. If the complainants are aggrieved by the High Court decision, they should have appealed to the Court of Appeal, not tried to reopen the case in a subordinate court,” Osiemo added.

According to a charge sheet filed in court by the DPP, Spencer is facing five criminal charges, including forging the will and a power of attorney purporting to be from the late Robson, and used those documents to claim ownership of two prime land parcels, LR No. 2327/10 and LR No. 2327/117, located along Ushuriki Road in Nairobi’s Karen area.

The disputed land is estimated to be worth over Sh100 million.

Kagure claimed she legally bought the land from Robson in 2011, before he died in 2012, and maintains the documents presented by Spencer are forgeries.

“The documents presented in court are not genuine. I lawfully acquired the land from Mr. Robson while he was alive. Any suggestion otherwise is an attempt to rewrite history,” Kagure stated in an earlier affidavit.

“The validity of the Will has been a subject of litigation before the High Court for the last 10 years, culminating in a judgment on June 19, 2025. The High Court made a definitive pronouncement on whether the Will was genuine or not. We have a copy of the judgment, which has been supplied to this court,” Spenser’s lawyer said.

Despite the DPP’s application, Kagure’s lawyer, Kiraithe Wandugi, strongly opposed the withdrawal, accusing the ODPP of acting in bad faith.

“It is in blatant disregard of public interest and a total abuse of the authority of the DPP as provided for in the Constitution,” Wandugi argued.

“There are scared individuals that the ODPP is always bent to protect, whichever way,” he added.

Wandugi also cited a previous criminal case against Spencer that was allegedly withdrawn under suspicious circumstances, claiming the DPP discontinued it while Kagure was testifying in court.

Spencer appeared following a warrant of arrest issued the previous week. His lawyer successfully applied to have the warrant lifted, and he was released on a Sh50,000 personal bond.