Students from public universities fail Bar exams

Public universities have once again performed poorly in bar examination that was conducted last year, raising concerns over the quality of training of lawyers in the institutions.

The Council of Legal Education, in a report dated February 28 and signed by acting Chief Executive Officer J K Gakeri, said 445 out of 1,991 students failed the examination majority of them being from public universities.

At the University of Nairobi, 533 students sat for the examination and only 149 passed while at Moi University, 407 students sat the examination with 78 passing.

Few passed exam

At Kenyatta University, 149 candidates sat the examination and only 49 passed while at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, 87 students sat for the examination and 15 passed.

Catholic University of Eastern Africa had 299 students and only 36 passed the exam. At African Nazerene University, 32 students sat for the examination and only 2 passed.

Legal writing and drafting had 50 per cent fail and 50 per cent pass  while commercial transaction had 51.5 per cent pass and 48.5per cent pass.

Trial advocacy recorded the highest pass at 96 per cent as only 4 per cent of students failed.

A taskforce on legal sector reforms chaired by lawyer Fred Ojiambo revealed that law students graduating from public universities had a higher chance of failing Bar examinations compared to those studying in private institutions.

The study that was conducted between 2009 and 2016, indicate that more students from three top public universities failed to make it through the Kenya School of Law (KSL) examinations than those from other institutions offering law degrees.