Kirinyaga Woman Representative Jane Njeri Maina has proposed a new Bill that seeks to allow students who do not meet the requirements to be admitted to the Kenya School of Law (KSL).
The Kenya School of Law (Amendment) Bill 2023 seeks to amend the Kenya School of Law Act to allow students who have attained a minimum entry requirement for a Diploma in Law and those who have attained a Diploma in Law from a University, University college or any other institution recognized in Kenya to be admitted into the Kenya School of Law for the Advocates Training Programme (ATP).
According to the MP, if the new Bill seeks to streamline the process of training legal students after years of reform calls from various stakeholders.
"A person who does not meet the requirements shall be eligible for admission at the ATP if that person attained a minimum entry requirement for the diploma in law," reads part of the bill.
As it stands, students should have attained a minimum grade of B in English or Kiswahili and a mean grade of C + in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) or its equivalent to be admitted to KSL.
The Bill being sponsored by Njeri is not the first piece of legislation seeking to ease the requirements for pursuing legal education in the country.
Embakasi East MP Babu Owino has in the past proposed the Legal Education (Amendment) Bill 2023 that sought to lower the requirement for Law Degrees.
The MP sought to scrap the provision requiring applicants to have attained grade B in English or Kiswahili which he argued will allow more students to pursue the course.
According to the MP, hundreds of potential lawyers are locked out of the training due to the requirements.
Currently, the country has been dealing with rising cases of individuals impersonating lawyers and others practicing without the required licenses.
Brian Mwenda's case is the most recent high-profile case after he was discovered to have been practicing law after impersonating another legal practitioner.
However, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has vowed to weed out all fraudsters in the industry.
