Three candidates want court to suspend a decision by the Council of Legal Education postponing the Advocates Training Programme exam that had been set for this month.
Aaron Mang’oka, Daniel Okumu and Moses Maasai say they were to sit their bar exam in July last year but that has yet to be administered over 10 months later. They have petitioned the High Court through lawyers Danstan Omari and Shadrack Wambui.
“We are aggrieved by the CLE’s unilateral decision issued on April 9 to postpone the April 2021 ATP exam on account of the failure to obtain authority to conduct the examination from the relevant agencies charged with the management of the Covid-19 pandemic,” they say.
“The decision to postpone the examination for the second time is manifestly unlawful, unconstitutional and causes us unnecessary hardship in the guise of combating Covid-19.”
According to court documents, the trio says unless their application is heard on a priority basis and the reliefs sought granted, they and other bar candidates who registered in 2016, 2017, 2018 risk being locked out of the Advocates Training Programme.
The exam was scheduled for April 13-23. Also sought is an order compelling the CLE to announce the dates it will administer the exam. A general notice in a local newspaper announced the postponement. Court documents indicate that the postponement was made through a Gazette notice.
