The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Renson Ingonga, now seeks to terminate criminal proceedings against prominent lawyer Guy Spencer Elms, who has been at the center of a decade-long legal battle over the alleged forgery of a British billionaire’s will involving a Sh100 million Karen estate.

When lawyer Spencer presented himself before Milimani magistrate Benmark Ekhubi for plea taking on Monday, the DPP objected to him answering to the five criminal charges and sought to terminate them under Section 87(a) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).

” 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.”

In the June 19 decision, 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 businesswoman and politician Agnes Kagure, who is the complainant in the criminal case against Spencer .

“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 supportinmg 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 forgery, uttering false documents, and attempting to fraudulently acquire property.

 He allegedly forged 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, who claims she legally bought the land from Robson in 2011 before his death in 2012, has repeatedly maintained that the documents produced 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.

However, with the High Court now having pronounced on the validity of the will, the DPP maintains there is no basis for continuing with the criminal proceedings.

“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.”

Wandugi also raised concerns about a pattern of withdrawals in similar matters, alleging that a previous criminal case involving Spencer had also been dropped under suspicious circumstances.

“There was another criminal case earlier pending at Nairobi City Court, and the DPP withdrew the same while Kagure was testifying in the dock,” he said.

Spencer appeared in court following a warrant of arrest issued the previous week.

 His lawyer successfully applied for the warrant to be lifted. 

The magistrate freed him on a Sh50,000 personal bond, pending a ruling on whether the DPP’s application to terminate the case will be granted.

The court will deliver its decision on September 15, 2025