More than a half of law graduates from Kenya's local universities fail to qualify as advocates

david nganga

January 16, 2018 11:26 AM

Out of 16,086 students who sat the Bar examinations, 53% failed.

Kenyatta University has been ranked as the top campus whose law graduates fail to qualify as advocates of the High Court, a new report says.

The university had 30 per cent of its law graduates fail the bar exams in the report that highlighted how more than a half of law graduates from local universities were unable to qualify as advocates of the High Court.

Moi University came in second (22%) whereas the University of Nairobi was ranked third (20%) in the report by a taskforce on legal sector reforms chaired by lawyer Fred Ojiambo.

“Unfortunately, while the number of graduates has increased there have been concerns about deterioration in the quality, professional capacity, and competence of these graduates as they transition into practitioners,” the report says.

Out of 16,086 students who sat the Bar examinations administered by Council of Legal Education (CLE) between 2009 and 2016, 8,549 or 53 per cent failed with only 7,530 passing.

The report further indicates that 5,298 students who failed bar exams are employed by law firms, county governments, and universities among others.

In the report, 53 students who failed their examinations in 2009, 62 in 2010, 324 in 2011, 595 in 2012, 1,113 in 2013 are still sitting for the exams hoping to pass.

For 2013, the students who failed but are still in the system are 1,365, 1,786 for 2015 while 2016 has the highest number of failures at 3,251 in the system.

In 2016, only 1,009 students passed the bar exams while 3,251 failed.

david nganga