Legal Education in Kenya: Regulator registers key milestones

The Council of Legal Education (CLE) continues to record great milestones as the dedicated regulator and supervisor of legal education in Kenya.

CLE was re-established under the Legal Education Act, No.27 of 2012, segregating it from the Kenya School of Law (KSL), which, through parallel legislation, was set up as a government agency for post-university professional legal training.  

One of the Council’s purposes is the promotion of legal education and training, and the maintenance of the highest possible standards in legal education providers. The other is the provision of a system to guarantee the quality of legal education and legal education providers.

CLE’s Vision is: “Globally competitive and transformative legal education and training in Kenya”.

Its Mission is: “To assure quality legal education and training through licensing and supervision of legal education providers; Administration of the Advocates Training Programme (ATP) examination and advising the government on legal education”.

CLE’s mandate is prescribed by Section 8(1) and (2) of the Legal Education Act, No 27 of 2012. According to that Section, the functions of the Council shall be to:

• Regulate legal education and training in Kenya offered by legal education providers;
• License legal education providers;
• Supervise legal education providers;
• Advise the Government on matters relating to legal education and training;
• Recognise and approve qualifications obtained outside Kenya for purposes of admission to the Roll.
• Administer such professional examinations as may be prescribed under Section 13 of the Advocates Act.

The Council is also responsible for setting and enforcing standards relating to the legal education and training in Kenya.

The Council’s strategic objectives are:

• To enhance the legal education regulatory and licensing framework.
• To develop and administer structures and systems that assure credible and verifiable ATP Examination.
• To develop the capacity for research.
• To build and enhance governance and human resource capacity.
• To enhance financial and physical resources of CLE.
• To enhance information communication technology capabilities for operational efficiency.
• To promote positive corporate image and enhance visibility of CLE. Under this objective, the Council has developed and implemented its Service Charter. It has also developed the CLE website.
• To establish and strengthen strategic collaboration and partnerships at local, regional and international level. Under this objective, the Council has registered several achievements. One, it signed an agency agreement with KSL to conduct Project and Oral Examination. Two, it established Bar Examination Loan and partnered with the Higher Education Loans board (HELB) to manage loan disbursement to ATP examination candidates. It partnered with UNDP to support the review 2014/2018 strategic plan and validation of the current strategic plan. Itenhanced necessary process for LEPS (uploaded to CLE website), all application forms and inspection guidelines.

The council has had major milestones since its establishment, key among them the development of regulations and setting up of the standard operating guidelines and procedures to enable the council to deliver on its mandate. The guidelines are as follows:

• Guidelines for Monitoring and Evaluation of Peer Reviewer Services.
• Criteria for Application of Experiential Learning.
• Guidelines for Exemption from the Bar Programme.
• Evaluation Criteria of Experiential Learning.
• Criteria for Licensing of Paralegal Education Providers.

In objective three of its strategic plan, the Council proposed amendments to Legal Education Act and KSL Act from recommendations of the task force on legal sector reforms.