About 1,500 candidates sat the bar examinations at the Kenya School of Law in 2018 and out of this, only 290 qualified.
This means 82 per cent of the students who sat the examinations failed, making only 18 per cent legible to practice law. Those who failed the exams will be forced to re-take it within five years.
In a report released by lawyer Fred Ojiambo in 2017, 7,530 out of 16,086 students passed the bar exams while 8,549 failed, from the year 2009 to 2016, making the failure rate 53 per cent.
Statistics indicate that of the 1,628 students who re-sat the exams, only 186 passed. This means 89% students re-sitting the exam still failed.
This shows the failing of these exams, which are usually taken after a one-year post-graduate diploma program, is not new.
In an interview by The Star, LSK Chief Executive Officer, Mercy Wambua stated that a task force had started investigations of the issue in May 2018. She added they are expected to hand in their report in three weeks.
“This matter has continued to shock us and we are keen to get to the bottom of it,” she proclaimed.
Students who express disbelief of their grades and want their papers remarked fork out a total of Ksh64 million for the programme.
The students do a total of nine papers. Re-sitting one paper costs Ksh10,000 while a re-mark costs Ksh15,000.
Commenting on the issue, Okalle Makanda, a lawyer, stated that the failure is deliberately aimed at controlling who joins the profession.
