The Kenya School of Law's monopoly of training advocates may end soon, the Star has established.
In a new government-sponsored Bill, the state will allow the licensing of other education providers to train advocates. This is likely to open the industry to institutions in the private sector.
The Council for Legal Education (CLE) will then get the powers to accredit deserving institutions to provide the mandatory post-graduate programme before one is admitted to the bar.
If the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, 2019 sponsored by Majority leader Aden Duale is enacted, any university in Kenya for instance, can begin offering the 18-month advocate training course.
However, this is subject to accreditation by the Council for Legal Education.
“The Bill proposes to amend section 4 of the Kenya School of Law Act, 2012, to remove the current exclusivity and open up the licensing of other education providers to train advocates under the Advocates Act,” Duale said in the objects of the Bill.
The amendments also seek to take away KSL powers to administer pre-bar exams and give it to the CLE.
This means that even though there could be many institutions training advocates, there would be standard exams before one is admitted into any of the institutions.
The CLE sets and marks bar exams. There have been complaints of massive failure in what students attribute to a disconnect between teaching and examination.
The Bill also gives the CLE powers to determine the admission requirements for the advocates training programme.
The University of Nairobi, Moi University, Kenyatta University and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology are among public institutions of higher learning offering law degrees.
Strathmore University, Mount Kenya University, Catholic University and Riara University are among private institutions offering law degrees.
However, all these graduates must enrol at KSL for the post-graduate programme to be admitted to the bar.
Yesterday, Law Society of Kenya president Allen Gichuhi welcomed the move, saying it would reduce congestion at KSL and financial distress on students.
Gichuhi said there are some classes at KSL that have up to 400 students.
“Personally, I think this is a good thing. Right now everything is congested at the Kenya School of Law and the feeling was there are other universities which are also capable of offering that same training and to decentralise everything from one spot,” he told the Star.
Gichuhi attempted to allay fears that training could be diluted, saying there would be one curriculum under the CLE.
The KSL was established in 1963 and the first intake had 11 students.
The school, then a department of the Attorney General’s Office, was operating from a four-acre plot on Valley Road next to the University of Nairobi’s Dental School.
In July 2001, KSL became a semi-autonomous government agency and built an ultra-modern training facility in Karen.
Edited by Pamela Wanambisi
