Admission systems unfair to law students

By Pravin Bowry

Becoming a member of the legal profession leading to enrolment as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya under the Advocates Act has been made gruelling with unnecessary delays and the process developing into a nightmare.

There are presently 10 universities offering LLB degrees, most with conventional full time curriculums, and some with part time training in what has come to be known as the parallel programmes, where students undertake their education part time.

Disturbing gap

There is also the influx of Kenyans who obtain various degrees in other foreign countries, mostly common law countries such as England, India and Uganda.

On the average, after primary and secondary education and before joining the four year university degree course in the public sector in the regular entry under Joint Admissions Board there is a most disturbing gap of about two years before entrance into a public university.

Parallel students who can afford are privileged to short circuit the two year delay.

Effectively this means that the most deserving students in the country are disadvantaged and to the student, parent and the Nation this delay is most unwarranted. Upon finishing the examinations offered at the end of the four year LLB degree courses and before graduation, in most universities, there is another delay of up to six months.

After graduation an application is made to the Kenya School of Law set up under the Council for Legal Education Act (Cap. 16A).

Originally from 1963 to 1972, the Kenya School of Law produced lawyers after five years training under articles and some of the country’s prominent judges and lawyers were trained under this system. Then in about 1967, a Faculty of Law was established and Kenya School of Law developed into a post graduate institute.

The School presently strives to set standards in the legal profession by training students on the practice of law and offering exams on the same to ensure high professional standards.

At the moment the Kenya School of Law is the only accredited institution that offers the post-graduate diploma in law that leads to admission as an Advocate.

The Kenya School of Law doubles up both as a regulator of institutions offering post graduate training and a service provider of the same and this could be a problem hence the need to separate the two functions.

Students who graduate with degrees in law from the various universities locally and abroad have to fight for the limited spaces at the one institution if they want to practice in Kenya.

Rigorous training

Once the successful applicant is admitted to the School, they go through a rigorous one year course and finally sit for the bar exams at the end of the year, in November and thereafter go for pupilage for 6 months.

Obtaining pupilage with practitioners is also difficult.

One of the major areas for concern is the mode of teaching at the School which is meant to be delivered in a clinical manner yet the student to lecturer ratio is 220 to 1 which makes it difficult to have any meaningful assessment of every student.

The present situation is that the results of the examinations undertaken in November are announced in June/July of the succeeding year thus students wait for more than 6 months to have their results after which they petition the Chief Justice to be admitted to the Bar, if they have passed.

This period of waiting for results is unwarranted.

All things being equal, it takes a little over three years to become a lawyer after a university degree and if stakeholders have their way it will take longer as there is a proposal to increase the time at the Law School by one more year.

What’s more, the date of admission to the Bar by the Chief Justice is not known. Upon admission one must practice for two years under an advocate of not less than five years standing.

Law graduates are opting for other fields due to all the red tape and unnecessary duplication in training.

The quality of legal training offered in the country is also under attack due to the mass exit of some of the top law lecturers from the classrooms in favour of state jobs.

A massive increase of fees at the Law School was implemented recently.

The plight of the student and the parent and the financial burden of becoming a lawyer in the country are concerns which need to be addressed urgently and there is a real case of a second Law School in the country.

The writer is a lawyer.

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