Law lecturers crisis hits Kenyan varsities

The Faculty of Law at the University of Nairobi has become a casualty of the reforms in government after senior lecturers quit in favour of plum jobs in commissions and the Judiciary. (READ: Jobs galore as State seeks office holders)

The dean at Parklands School of Law, Prof James Otieno-Odek, says the exodus has dealt a big blow to the field because there is a shortage of highly educated law professionals to replace the departing lecturers.

“The capacity was already lacking but the little we had has now been taken away,” Prof Odek told the Saturday Nation.

“A number of those who left had PhDs and others were professors yet very few people in the field have gone beyond the first degree,” he lamented.

The dean said the school lacked professors to supervise students pursuing doctorate (PhD) degrees.

“I am the only professor around yet I am the dean of the school so I can’t manage to be the same one supervising students,” he said.

Among the lecturers that the university has lost are Prof Githu Muigai (the Attorney-General), Prof Jackton Ojwang and Dr Charles Smokin Wanjala (both Supreme Court judges), and Ms Pauline Nyamweya and Mr George Kimondo (High Court judges).

Those who had left earlier to join commissions include former Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission chairman PLO Lumumba, Mrs Florence Simbiri Jaoko (former chairperson, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights), Dr Elizabeth Muli (Commission for Implementation of the Constitution vice-chair) and Mr Tom Ojienda of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission.

Ms Josephine Muritu, the assistant director in-charge of quality insurance, compliance and accreditation at Kenya School of Law, attributes the exodus to demand for high qualifications required for the plum jobs in the Judiciary and the commissions.

She says the shortage has been occasioned by the fact that the bulk of lawyers lack qualifications above a bachelors degree.

“What we are seeing is because we had not invested in an expanded manpower to cater for an expanded Constitution,” she says.

The Council of Legal Education, according to the assistant director, has for the last six months been involved in a fact-finding mission ahead of an accreditation programme of law faculties and the situation is not good.

“We insist that institutions must now start to think of their next plan of action regarding capacity building to recoup the losses,” says Ms Muritu.

But even as the situation changes from bad to worse, Ms Muritu says little is being done to counter the problem and some universities have been forced to import their teaching staff.

According to her, universities are not developing their teaching staff both externally and internally.

“There are no structures for mentorship in our universities and we are looking at putting a requirement that each university must allocate a percentage of their money into staff development and research,” she says.

Prof Odek, who puts the number of professors of law in the country at less than 10 and PhD holders at less than 25, says the situation mirrors the lack of commitment by the government to reward pursuance of higher education.

He says it is going to be an uphill task for the University of Nairobi to recover from the loss.