As a lawyer, the man who called himself Brian Mwenda was a high achiever. The Kenyan had drawn attention to himself with several cases at the High Court of Kenya. This was particularly remarkable given his background: Mwenda had not completed any classical legal training.
Nevertheless, he won each of his 26 cases in court, reports the BBC, among others. But the new star in the legal sky has fallen: now he has been arrested. He is accused of practicing law without a license to practice law. Mwenda is said to have stolen the identity of another real lawyer by taking over his online account at the Bar Association. Based on what we know so far, he could be charged with forgery and identity theft, it is said.
“We will ensure that he feels the full force of the law,” said the president of the Kenya Bar Association. Now the legal authorities are calling him a “swindler” and the celebrated autodidact has become a suspected fraudster.
The suspicion arose after the real lawyer with that name discovered that he could no longer log into his account at the Bar Association. But Mwenda still has supporters. He is celebrated by them as a “brilliant young mind” who achieved success “without any classical qualifications”. In a video in which Mwenda appeared alongside the former governor of the capital Nairobi, he promised: “I will be able to clear up this misunderstanding and prove my innocence.”
According to Kenyan news site The Star, Mwenda was questioned by police. The alleged imposter is now out on bail.
Sources: BBC / “The Star” / Mike Sonko on Twitter
Watch the video: How good am I really? Rebecca suffers from imposter syndrome – she thinks she is an impostor. She reports in the stern video how she experiences her everyday life with massive self-doubt. An expert also explains how the impostor phenomenon can be explained scientifically.
