High Court Allows DPP to Proceed With Vaccine Forgery Trial of Desmond Ogutu

The Nairobi High Court rejected a petition on Thursday, October 22, clearing the way for the Director of Public Prosecutions to continue the criminal case against 28-year-old Desmond Ogutu at Kahawa Law Courts.

According to a statement from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the accused is charged with making a false document under Section 347(a) read with Section 349 and with forgery under Section 352(a) of the Penal Code.

Prosecutors allege that between July 1 and August 8, 2025 Ogutu, together with persons who have not been charged, produced yellow-fever vaccination certificates falsely claiming they were issued by Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital; the certificates were recovered from six Somali nationals intercepted at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on August 8, 2025 while allegedly being smuggled to Libya via Egypt. He is also accused of forging six injectable polio vaccine stamps on certificates said to have been issued by Port Health Services at Wilson Airport, and of possessing a counterfeit Port Health officer’s seal. A search of his residence in the Claywork area of Kasarani uncovered those documents, along with 274 blank international vaccination certificates and 91 single-dose vaccination cards.

Ogutu filed the petition against the Milimani Chief Magistrate’s Court, the Inspector General of Police, the DPP and the Director of Criminal Investigations, contending that police entered his home without a warrant and that the evidence obtained should be excluded; he also denied any knowledge of the documents.

The DPP opposed the application, invoking Section 57 of the National Police Service Act, 2011, which permits warrant-less entry in specified circumstances where obtaining a warrant could jeopardise an investigation, subject to constitutional safeguards.

By dismissing the petition, the High Court enabled the prosecution, led by Abdalla Lyaga, to move forward with the trial at Kahawa Law Courts, where the allegations will be examined.

The decision arrives amid a wider crackdown on document fraud, highlighted by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission’s recent arrest of a former Office of the Auditor-General employee for using a falsified KCSE certificate to obtain KSh5.8 million in public funds.