African Woman and Child Feature Service - Legal Education in Kenya in Crisis Written by Prof. Patricia Kameri-Mbote Wednesday, 05 January 2011 00:00
As Kenya is in the process of implementing the new constitution and also in the history of major economies, there is need to assess legal education against national needs.
The situation Kenya is at the moment is similar to the point at which Justice Rosalie Wahl of the Minnesota Supreme Court and Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Legal Education asked of the United States’ system; “ Have we really tried in law school to determine what skills, what quality of mind are required of lawyers? Are we adequately educating students through the content and methodology of our present law school curriculums to perform effectively as lawyers after graduation?”
If ever there was a time that these questions should be asked in Kenya, it is now. We have a new Constitution to implement; we are seeking to be a middle income economy by the year 2030; and we are very aware that the rule of law is critical in moving forward from where we are to where we want to be.
The organs of implementing the Constitution, Parliament and the Executive are all awash with lawyers. The new Constitution proposes radical ways to reform the judiciary to make it an effective guardian of the rule of law. Are we preparing lawyers to effectively perform these and other emerging tasks after graduation?
Currently, Kenya has six law programmes, four in public universities and another two in private universities. There are close to seven others going through the Commission for Higher Education approval processes and many more being hatched in public and private universities.
Of all these programmes, only one has a graduate programme with the rest providing undergraduate studies. In the forty years when legal education has been provided in Kenya, only three people have earned doctoral degrees in law from a Kenyan university. In the entire country, we have three professors of law and less than ten associate professors. Not all these professors are engaged in law teaching.
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African Woman and Child Feature Service - Legal Education in Kenya in Crisis Written by Prof. Patricia Kameri-Mbote Wednesday, 05 January 2011 00:00
This is against a backdrop of very high demand for legal education. Indeed some law classrooms have as many as 200 students taking one course. Large student numbers are not in themselves a problem because even in Ivy League institutions, there are large law classes.
But in the Ivy League Universities, the classes are divided into smaller groups for effective instruction. This is not a possibility in our case because we do not have enough law teachers.
Many of those who teach law do it alongside vibrant legal practices or other full time engagements. This would not be problematic if there was a critical mass of passionate law teachers in universities engaged in research, supervising and mentoring upcoming law teachers alongside teaching and thus growing the legal academy.
Unfortunately, many teachers of law do plenty of teaching and minimal research. Few are qualified to supervise masters’ and doctoral students. Little wonder then that there are no professors of law and what we have is a body of adjunct law teachers who, because of the stringent requirements for promotion, are unable to move beyond the lower cadres of the academy. Indeed most students graduate from law school having never been taught by a professor.
A first degree in law, like that in medicine, is a course that one should study in the country where they hope to practice. Yet many parents, including law teachers and actors in the Kenyan law and justice sector, send their children to study law abroad because of their lack of confidence in legal education in Kenya. This is a financial drain on both the individual parent and the country but many see it as enhancing the chances of getting employment in an increasingly competitive market.
While there are more job opportunities for lawyers, it is not unusual to find unemployed or under-employed law graduates. For many of these students taking law studies is a strategic choice to ensure that they can fend for themselves and be financially independent.
That they should go through law school successfully but not be able to engage may be an indictment of our system. Does the system equip law students to serve the Kenyan society? We
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African Woman and Child Feature Service - Legal Education in Kenya in Crisis Written by Prof. Patricia Kameri-Mbote Wednesday, 05 January 2011 00:00
need to evaluate our assumptions about the roles and methods of law schools and explore new ways of conceptualizing and delivering learner centred legal education that is relevant to Kenyans at this stage of our development.
This calls for investment in higher education generally and legal education particularly by providing resources necessary to deliver quality instruction. Most importantly, universities should create conducive environments for legal academics to stay in the university and not be lured by competing engagements outside to make ends meet. They should also provide space for legal researchers in law schools to attract research funds so as to grow legal scholarship and the academy in Kenya.
The writer is a Law Professor and Advocate of the High Court of Kenya
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