Catholic, two UoN campuses also seen unfit to train lawyers

Politics and policy

Technical University of Mombasa students leave for home following unrest over accreditation of engineering courses in September last year. PHOTO | FILE   

By NEVILLE OTUKI and KIARIE NJOROGE

In Summary

• Kenyatta University (KU), UoN’s Parklands Campus and Strathmore University are some of the institutions allowed to offer law.
• Mount Kenya University and JKUAT have been given provisional permits, pending a review of their applications.

The Council of Legal Education has stopped University of Nairobi’s Mombasa and Kisumu campuses from admitting new law students from the current academic year.

The regulator also rejected Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University’s application for accreditation and asked Catholic University to show a closure plan by November 23.

The Council of Legal Education issued the verdict in a public notice, a blot to the UoN and Moi University — whose law school has also been ordered shut — given they have trained the bulk of Kenyan lawyers, magistrates and prosecutors.

It also underlines the mismatch between teaching facilities and the rapid expansion of public universities, which has seen enrolment increase from 122,847 in 2009 and 443,783 students last year.

“Any institution purporting to provide legal education which is not hereunder mentioned has no legal standing and is therefore not authorised to offer legal education,” said the notice signed by Prof Kulundu Bitonye, the Council of Legal Education chief executive.

Kenyatta University (KU), UoN’s Parklands Campus and Strathmore University are some of the institutions allowed to offer law.

Other institutions like Mount Kenya University and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) have been given provisional permits, pending a review of their applications.

Attorney-General Githu Muigai recently criticised local universities for producing half-baked lawyers.

Prof Muigai said the parallel degree module was a venture set up by universities to mint money from parents, adding that graduates of the programme have nothing to show for it.

“It is absurd to teach labour, family and criminal law in total disregard of knowledge beneficial to the learners,” the AG said.

Moi University’s Masters in (child and family) Law course was suspended in February.

The Engineering Board of Kenya early this month asked public universities to stop admitting students for engineering courses it had not approved and immediately suspend teaching of continuing students.

READ: Universities on the spot over bogus engineering degrees

The institutions, the board said, had questionable engineering courses include the UoN, KU, Masinde Muliro, Technical University of Kenya and Technical University of Mombasa.

Egerton University, JKUAT and University of Eldoret are also in the list.