A: Introduction
The three East African countries of
Tanzania Uganda and Kenya were formerly British colonies until 1961, 1962 and
1963 when the respectively won their independence. Until that time there was no programme of legal education
(whether formal or informal) in any of those countries. Lawyers practicing in those countries were
trained either in the United Kingdom or in India. No institutions of legal or
paralegal training was available or contemplated for indigenous inhabitants
in-country. For that reason, the Bar
and the Bench were exclusively managed by immigrant professionals and
personnel.
When Tanzania (then Tanganyika)
gained independence in1961, a decision was quickly made in 1961 to establish a
Faculty of Law in Dar-es-Salaam as part of the then University-College of East
Africa (attached to the University of London) to offer academic training for
indigenous lawyers. Kenya followed in
1963 with the establishment of a School of Law to train articled clerks (much
like the Inns of Court in London).
Uganda followed with her own Faculty of Law in 1968. In 1970 when the University College of East
Africa) broke up, separate Faculties of Law were launched in each of these
countries. Uganda later added a Law
Development Center to perform much the same functions as Kenya’s School of Law.
B: The Structure of Legal Education in
East Africa
(i)
East Africa Legal Systems
Because of their common history, the legal systems in operation in these countries are broadly similar. The corpus of law is derived from two main legal traditions, namely
·
indigenous
customary law, and
·
the
common law of England and the doctrines of equity.
Other traditions imported into East Africa as a result of a long association with India and the Middle East such as Islamic and Hindu laws also apply. The extent of application of any of these legal traditions are subject, of course, to the provisions of each country’s national Constitution, Acts of Parliament and statutory instruments. In general these have tended to reproduce principles drawn from Anglo-American legal systems. The teaching of and scholarship in law is necessary structured with this as the dominant perspective.
Between 1961 and 1970, the
focus in legal education was East Africa as an integrated jurisdiction. This was possible mainly because of the
existence of an East Africa-wide appellate court structure, university education
and common services. This had important
advantages in several ways.
·
Curricula
and syllabi placed great emphasis on the identification of common themes and
substantive problems,
· Research and scholarship were largely comparative in approach, and geared towards the development of transnational paradigms,
·
Student
admissions and exchanges were subject to institutional planning and
reciprocity, and
·
Faculty
recruitment and exchange was standardised and frequent.
The emergence of autonomous
law Faculties in 1970 followed with the collapse of the East African Community
in 1977 led rapidly to the re-orientation of legal education, research and
scholarship towards national issues and concerns.
C: The
Structure of Legal Education in Kenya
As
in the other three countries, Kenya, consolidated, rationalised and refocused
its legal education mainly towards the national legal system. In addition to the one at the University of
Nairobi, second Faculty of Law was established at Moi University with emphasis
on clinical legal education. And as the
Kenyan education system moved away from its East African common heritage, the
structure of the curriculum, admission of students and recruitment of faculty
and deployment of law graduates also changed.
The primary characteristics of these are outlined below.
(i)
The Curriculum
Because students now enter University after twelve (rather than fourteen) years at school, curricula in all disciplines in Kenyan Universities were revised in 1987 to include a large number of pre-university training that was taken care of under the old cycle. For law students this means, therefore that a number of non-law courses have become part of the curriculum. These include:
· language, communication and study skills
· development theory and concepts and,
· environmental sciences
These courses are taken as part of a University-wide system of common education intended to bring students up to speed for university work. The law curriculum is then structure on a semester basis over a period of four years as follows:
· Year I twelve units all compulsory
· Year II twelve units all compulsory
· Year III twelve units largely compulsory
· Year IV twelve units largely optional and a compulsory research paper.
Apart form its concern largely with Kenyan legal issues, the curriculum content has not changed in the last thirty years eventhough the actual syllabi used by faculty members are revised to take account of legal developments worldwide.
(ii)
Admission of Students and Development of Graduate
Student admissions in public universities in Kenya is done centrally by a Joint Admissions Board chaired on a rotational basis by the Vice-Chancellors of those universities. Admission into the two law Schools is therefore done on a first-past-the post basis i.e. students who have the highest scores at the secondary school terminal examination and want to study law take first place in the admission process. Because of limited facilities at the two Law Schools no more than two hundred and fifty, out of approximately two thousand who apply, are admitted each year. Recently, the public universities introduced Parallel (i.e. evening) Degree Programmes for those who are unable to attend regular day classes and are ready to make direct fee payments to the University. This scheme now brings at least another two hundred students annually to the two Law Schools. Although admission criteria in respect of the Parallel are broader than the mainstream programmes, the curriculum and examination regulations are the same. There is therefore no difference in the quality of degrees obtained by both cohorts of students. Graduating students proceed to the Kenya School of Law for a one year period of clinical training under the supervision of senior members of the Bar after which they are admitted to practice at the Bar. Most of them end up in private practice even though a significant number enter public service.
(iii) Recruitment of Faculty
Faculty recruitment is also done on a centralised university-wide basis under the management of the Vice-Chancellor’s office. Faculties short-list and present qualified applicants to University level Committees in which heads of Departments, Deans of Faculties, and Representatives of Council and Senate are represented. To qualify for recruitment as a junior member of the faculty an applicant must have obtained a Master’s Degree or its equivalent from a recognised University. Higher level appointments require doctoral qualifications or substantial research publication and teaching experience. Most faculty members in both Law Schools will have received their first degrees locally (i.e. Kenya or East Africa) and subsequent qualifications mainly from the United Kingdom and North America.
D: Conclusion
Legal education in East Africa in general and in Keny in particular is faced with a number of important challenges. The first follows the re-establishment of an economic union in East Africa in November 1999 which contemplates the reintroduction of common adjudication structures and exchange of research and scholarship. An East Africa-wide jurisprudence will have to be developed to support it. The second is the impact of global trends in education particularly the growth of a strong comparative not only at the level of traditional “international law” issues but also in the sharing of national experiences. Educators in East Africa and in Kenya will have to take advantage of these trends to enrich curriculla, syllabi and the knowledge base of students, faculty and practitioners. The third, is to strengthen law as a discipline so that it can play its proper role in the reconstruction of the state in Africa. Developments in the final decade of the 20th Century point to the need for revolutionary doctrines that would create new orders for the 21st Century Legal education must play its role in that process. And fourth, for Kenya, anticipated changes in the national system of education whose focus is towards a new professionalism in all disciplines mean that the legal profession, in particular, can no longer function on the basis of archaic English values and traditions. The structure of legal education will have to change as the discipline of law leads the way to a new renaissance of value and institutions.