Council of Legal Education set to be reconstituted

The fate of Council of Legal Education (CLE) Chief executive officer Kulundu-Bitonye and five other members of the board of the council now hangs in the balance after the government bowed to pressure to reconstitute the board.

The Chief of staff and Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua has notified the board of the government intention to reconstitute it.

The board has been facing several litigation from universities over cancellation of their law programmes.

“By way of this letter you are hereby notified that pursuant to section 4 of the legal education Act as duly amended vide Act No 18 of 2014, the tenure of the current council of legal education is capped at three years from previously four years,” said Mr Kinyua in a letter dated February 23 to the CLE Chief executive officer.

He said the new board will be constituted in due course.
The board members were appointed in March 2013 by the then Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs Eugene Wamalwa.

They included Eric Kyalo Mutua, Kenneth Akide, Judy Thongori, Raychelle Omamo and John Kipkoech Chebii for a period of four years.

Prof Kulundu has been synonymous with the legal training as he once served at Kenya School of law as the director before moving to CLE.

NEW FORMAT

The exit of the board is also set to pave way for a new format of appointing board members at the council since it’s the education ministry that will be taking over the management of the school.

Under the amended Act, it is the President who has power to appoint the chairman of the council, while the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has to nominate two members instead of the current three.

Previously, the chairman was appointed by the Attorney-General.

Public and private universities are also required to nominate one member each.

According to the amended law, the board is supposed to have 10 members chaired by an individual with at least 15 years’ experience in legal education and training, appointed by the President.

PENDING LEGAL CASE

Other members include the principal secretary responsible for legal education, the PS for Finance, the AG and the Chief Justice.

Last year, Moi University sued the council for closing its law school arguing that the Council of Legal Education has no powers to conduct inspections in Universities.

Moi University argued that it is the Commission of University Education (CUE) that is supposed to accredit universities.

High Court judge George Odunga is set to make a ruling on the case next month.