MPs have poked holes in the Kenya School of Law's examination model, blaming it for the mass failure of students.
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission chairman Eliud Wabukala yesterday confirmed that the agency has launched investigation into the matter.
Members of the National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee chaired by Baringo North MP William Cheptumo criticised the examination method after it emerged that body teaching the curriculum is different from the agency setting exams.
The lawmakers also heard that another consortium of professionals are assembled to generate the marking scheme and mark the exams. They said this is to blame for the institution’s examination chaos.
"This is a worrying trend, and we cannot sit and watch as the situation gets out of hand. Going by this, ultimately there will be no student passing KSL exams,” Cheptumo said.
MPs Kamoti Mwamkale (Rabai), Munene Wambugu (Kirinyaga Central), Jennifer Shamala (nominated) and Beatrice Adagala (Vihiga woman representative) questioned the rationale behind having different bodies to teach, set and mark exams.
Adagala accused KSL of deliberately failing the students so as to make extra cash through expensive exam re-sit fees.
“The people who set exams are not those who generate the marking scheme. I think if you set the exams you know the answers," Munene said.
Deputy Solicitor General Christine Agimba, who appeared before the Committee alongside KSL chief executive officer Henry Mutai said the institution has already commissioned a firm to conduct a survey on the mass failure.
Mutai said the survey will be ready in the next two months
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 of them 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.
Bar examinations are compulsory for university law graduates seeking to be admitted as advocates of the High Court of Kenya.
