Placing Access to Justice at the Centre of Legal Education in Kenya

Abstract

This paper examines the role of legal education providers in the context of enhancing access to justice in Kenya through clinical legal education initiatives. The paper explores the significance of placing access to justice at the center of legal education. Kenya is at a critical moment where numerous challenges in accessing justice have been documented. They are among others, poor legal awareness, insufficient legal services, corruption within the justice sectors, geographical barriers, financial barriers, institutional barriers, discriminatory norms, illiteracy, and stigma. These challenges threaten the legal profession’s most fundamental legal ideals. When people lack effective representation to help with their most pressing problems, our legal system fuels alienation and inequality, and when the justice system fails those in poverty and facing inequality, violence can result. In this state of affairs, access to justice doesn’t simply make a difference; it protects lives. Therefore, this paper contends that the legal education providers have a role in preparing the next generation of lawyers the values, skills and knowledge necessary for the delivery of the constitutional promise of access to justice. This calls for the legal education providers in Kenya to place the issue of access to justice at the center of legal education with an understanding that access to justice is fundamental to establishing and maintaining the rule of law as a constitutional principle and value. This would enable Kenyans and especially the vulnerable members of the society to have their voices heard even as they exercise their legal rights. Indeed, access to justice is an indispensable factor in promoting citizens’ empowerment, in securing access to equal human dignity and in social and economic development. There is need for legal education providers to develop strategies that would make access to justice more central in legal education. Further, it is argued that a framework that focuses on clinical legal education aligned with other people-oriented and critical skill sets are not only useful but also deemed necessary for enhancing access to justice in our country. Clinical legal education will not only provide these future lawyers with the skills necessary for becoming a better lawyer but also enact positive change in the society. Law schools must confront the legal system’s limitations. The main conclusion reached is that by placing access to justice at the center of what they do, legal education providers can play an important role in crafting solutions, providing service and, most importantly, educating the next generation of lawyers so we can deliver on the promise of equal justice under law.