Kenyans holding law degrees from Rwanda and Burundi are not qualified to be admitted as advocates of the High Court of Kenya.
The High Court, sitting in Mombasa, established that a petition filed before it by eight Kenyans who had graduated with Law degrees from Rwanda and Burundi lacked merit.
In his ruling, Mombasa Resident Judge, Eric Ogola, noted that the eight petitioners failed to prove that the Chief Justice, who was the second respondent in the case, acted in a discriminatory manner to justify intervention by the High Court.
According to Justice Ogola, the petitioners were not qualified to be on the list of candidates who were to be recognised as Advocates of the High Court of Kenya in 2019.
"I find and hold that the Petitioners had not qualified to be on the list of applicants who were to be admitted as Advocates of the High Court of Kenya on 3/09/2019 and 4/09/2019. Therefore, the allegation of discrimination by the Petitioners are unfounded and baseless," the judge ruled.
"I find that the Petitioners have failed to prove that the 2nd Respondent acted in a discriminatory manner to justify intervention by this Court in the way and manner proposed in this Petition."
The eight petitioners were identified as Mwarome Hempstone Mwaduzua, Patrick Okello Kasera, Wekesa Richard, Yegon Kipkorir Victor, Moses Ngigi Gachucha, Danclus Bruce Kokonya, Juma Ian Masambaka and Samuel Maina Mwai.
The petitioners based their arguments on a 2019 High Court decision that held that a person who is an advocate of the High Court of Rwanda is qualified to be admitted to the Kenya bar under Section 13 (1) of the Advocate Act.
"Our names were not included in the upcoming admission that had been scheduled for September 4, 2019. We were, however, told to wait for the next admission that was scheduled for December of that year,” the court documents filed by the eight read.
Notably, the petitioners argued that four of their colleagues had been admitted to the Kenyan bar on September 4, 2019 using the now revoked law.
“Therefore, the act of refusing to admit us to the Kenyan bar, while our colleagues from Rwanda were admitted amounts to discrimination against us," they argued.
