Nairobi businessman Philip Chrisantus Obure, known as Chris Obure, has been arraigned before the Milimani Law Courts on charges of forgery and presenting false documents. The charges relate to the ownership battle surrounding the multimillion-shilling Senteu Plaza. Obure's company, SBS Dunhill East Africa, operated from the same building, making the ownership dispute particularly striking. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations said its Serious Crime Unit, working with forensic document examiners, established that Binding Resolutions presented in connection with the property were forged.
The case centers on how documents presented as proof of authority over the commercial property came into existence, who prepared them, and how they were used. The DCI alleges that Obure presented forged Binding Resolutions as genuine to claim ownership of Senteu Plaza. The documents were also used to obtain money from foreigners who were made to believe that Obure owned the plaza. This has shifted the controversy from a straightforward ownership disagreement to questions about documents, representations made to third parties, and money changing hands.
Forensic document examiners played a crucial role in the investigation. Detectives subjected the paperwork to forensic examination to establish whether the signatures and documents relied upon in the ownership dispute were genuine. A forensic document examiner testified about the contested signatures, identifying irregularities including identical duplicates, superimposed matches, and handwriting inconsistencies. The findings formed part of the prosecution evidence and remain subject to the court's final determination.
The history of the dispute is remarkable. Evidence presented in court indicated that SBS Dunhill had occupied office space at Senteu Plaza under a lease arrangement. Pankaj Chhaganlal Shah, a director of ACS & Others, testified that his company owned the property and that SBS Dunhill had leased premises on the first floor between October 2017 and August 2023. The prosecution case places an extraordinary transition under scrutiny: a company occupying space in the building as a tenant later becoming embroiled in a dispute involving documents purporting to support ownership of the property.
Obure has pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on a personal bond of KSh500,000 with a surety of an equivalent amount, or alternatively cash bail of KSh200,000 with one personal contact. The court found that Obure and co-accused Nickson Omanda had a case to answer and placed them on their defence. This decision was not a conviction but meant the prosecution had crossed the threshold necessary for the accused persons to be called upon to present their defence.
The Senteu Plaza prosecution arrived against the backdrop of separate asset recovery proceedings involving companies linked to Obure. The High Court had given the Assets Recovery Agency the green light to recover more than KSh18 million from two private jet leasing firms linked to the businessman following proceedings concerning suspicious financial transactions and international money laundering. This asset recovery case deepens the scrutiny on Obure's business dealings.
The case raises several questions, including who prepared the Binding Resolutions, who signed them, and whether those signatures were genuine. The court must ultimately determine what happened, and the central questions are already stark. The prosecution carries the burden of proving its charges before the court, and Obure's defence has an opportunity to answer the allegations.
Key points
- Chris Obure faces forgery charges over documents used to claim ownership of Nairobi's Senteu Plaza.
- Forensic document examiners identified irregularities in the documents presented by Obure.
- The case is part of a broader scrutiny of Obure's business dealings, including a separate asset recovery case involving KSh18 million.
