- Only one out of five candidates passed the bar examination administered last November
- A total of 1,264 candidates will have to resit the exam
Image: FILE
Four out of five students who sat the bar examination administered by the Kenya School of Law last November failed.
Out of the 1,572 students who were examined only 308 students passed, according to the results published by the Council of Legal Education.
This represented an average pass rate of 19.59 per cent in what could further spell doom for the country's legal profession grappling with mass examination failures.
The bar examination results are signed by CLE chief executive officer Jacob Gakeri.
Bar examinations are compulsory for university law graduates seeking to be admitted as advocates of the High Court of Kenya.
Higher education giants like the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University and Moi University recorded low pass rates in the crucial test.
Kisii University emerged tops among local and international universities represented in the November 2018 bar examinations.
Out of the 60 students representing the university 20 passed for admission to the roll of advocates. This is a pass rate of 33.33 per cent.
The university started offering LL.B degrees in 2009.
Kenyatta University, with 98 students, came second with a pass rate of 32.65 per cent after 32 students passed.
Strathmore University was third with a pass rate of 32.56 per cent after 28 of its 86 candidates passed.
The University of Nairobi was fourth, with the highest enrolment of 498 students at KSL. Its pass rate was 22.49 per cent after 112 of the candidates passed.
The fifth position was taken by Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology with 11 out of its 57 candidates qualifying– a pass rate of 19.3 per cent.
Moi University which presented 297 students wrapped up the top six universities in bar examinations last year.
Some 54 of its candidates excelled, a pass rate of 18.18 per cent.
Mt Kenya University presented 130 students with only 16 passing the bar exam. This represented a pass rate of 12.31 per cent.
Bar examinations have been marred by mass failures in the last decade in what has triggered the alarm in the legal profession.
The Senate and the Law Society of Kenya have launched parallel investigations to establish why many students are performing poorly in the crucial tests.