African Centre for Governance, Leadership and Ethics
A dedicated home within Kabarak University School of Law for advanced postgraduate study in governance, judicial science and dispute resolution.
About the Centre
The African Centre for Governance, Leadership and Ethics (ACGLE) at Kabarak University School of Law advances the study and practice of good governance, principled leadership and ethical conduct in Africa’s public and private institutions.
ACGLE is home to the School’s specialised master’s programmes: the LL.M. in Judicial Science (with an Executive track) and the LL.M. in Dispute Resolution.
Our work rests on four pillars:
Learn.
We offer rigorous, interdisciplinary and Africa-centred postgraduate training that interrogates contemporary challenges in governance, leadership, ethics and justice.
Research.
We advance rigorous, interdisciplinary and Africa-centred scholarship that informs legal reform, public policy and institutional practice in African contexts.
Engage.
We foster dialogue and collaboration among academia, the judiciary, legal professionals, government and communities through conferences, public forums and strategic partnerships.
Lead.
We nurture ethical, accountable and transformative leadership that strengthens institutions and advances justice and good governance across Africa.
Learn. Research. Engage. Lead.
A welcome to the Centre
Welcome to the African Centre for Governance, Leadership and Ethics (ACGLE) at Kabarak University School of Law. As we enter a pivotal era for African legal education, our mission remains absolute: to cultivate visionary leaders equipped to navigate, reform, and elevate Africa’s evolving institutional landscapes. The launch of our Master’s programmes, including the Master of Judicial Science (MJS) and the Master of Dispute Resolution (MDR), mark a transformative milestone in this journey.
We live in a historic moment that demands a reassessment of the systems that govern us. True governance on our continent requires a seamless blend of academic rigour, ethical clarity, and decolonial perspectives. At ACGLE, we approach law and governance not as static bodies of knowledge or frameworks imported from elsewhere, but as fields of inquiry that must be understood in relation to Africa’s histories, societies and contemporary realities. Our curricula are designed to confront the dualities of our colonial legal inheritance, directly challenging historical biases while actively championing the lived realities, philosophies, and indigenous customary laws of African societies. By bringing inherited legal structures into dialogue with African knowledge systems and social realities, we seek to contribute to the development of a distinctly African common law.
Our postgraduate programmes stand at the forefront of this institutional renaissance. The Master of Judicial Science (MJS) provides an authoritative, intellectually rigorous crucible for judges, judicial officers, and legal practitioners. It is structured to advance the frontiers of judicial craft, institutional independence, and transformative constitutionalism, equipping those on the bench with the philosophical depth and analytical precision required to deliver authentic, decolonised justice. In parallel, the Master of Dispute Resolution (MDR) delivers a definitive, top-tier specialisation in alternative justice systems, mediation, and arbitration. The MDR programme redefines how conflict is managed across the continent, elevating indigenous consensus-building mechanisms alongside international best practices to resolve complex socio-legal and commercial disputes with unparalleled authority.
To support this ambitious vision, ACGLE has brought together an elite, interdisciplinary faculty of internationally recognised scholars, seasoned legal experts, and leading policy practitioners. Our programme and subject leads bring deep field experience, progressive advocacy, and cutting-edge research, from transformative constitutionalism and devolution to gender-transformative frameworks like the African Feminist Judgments project, directly into the classroom. This ensures our academic environment functions as both an intellectual sanctuary and a practical incubator for continental transformation.
Whether you are joining us for our upcoming fee-paying specialised modules or enrolling in our full degree programmes, you are entering a space dedicated to your professional and intellectual metamorphosis. We are committed to shaping ethical leaders who do not just manage institutions, but who possess the decolonial lens and moral courage required to deconstruct systemic inequalities and drive sustainable good governance. We invite you to explore our faculty profiles, discover our unique areas of specialisation, and join an elite regional network driving impactful, ethical, and authentic change across the continent.
Moments from the Centre
Scenes from our September 2026 pilot module, Reimagining Adjudication: The Feminist Judgments Project.
Read the storyFive postgraduate pathways
Judicial science and dispute resolution, from the taught Executive LLM to the full LLM and MPhil. Select a programme to see its details.
Master of Laws (LLM) in Judicial Science
Advanced study in adjudication, judicial ethics and constitutional governance, grounded in African and Global South perspectives: eight taught modules and a compulsory, supervised Research Thesis.
- Who it is for
- Judges, magistrates and tribunal members; advocates, prosecutors and state counsel; academics and legal researchers; legislative drafters, policymakers and other justice-sector professionals. Open to candidates who will complete the compulsory, supervised Research Thesis.
- Duration
- Minimum 1.5 academic years (18 months); maximum 4 academic years, under University regulations.
- Mode of delivery
- Blended: roughly 40% physical, 30% live online and 30% asynchronous. Teaching runs in scheduled blocks, ordinarily the last weekend of the month (Thursday to Saturday) when in session.
Executive Master of Laws (LLM) in Judicial Science
Advanced study in adjudication, judicial ethics and constitutional governance, grounded in African and Global South perspectives: eight taught modules, without the Research Thesis.
- Who it is for
- Judges, magistrates and tribunal members; advocates, prosecutors and state counsel; academics and legal researchers; legislative drafters, policymakers and other justice-sector professionals. Open to candidates who will not undertake the Research Thesis.
- Duration
- Minimum 1.5 academic years (18 months); maximum 4 academic years, under University regulations.
- Mode of delivery
- Blended: roughly 40% physical, 30% live online and 30% asynchronous. Teaching runs in scheduled blocks, ordinarily the last weekend of the month (Thursday to Saturday) when in session.
Master of Laws (LLM) in Dispute Resolution
Advanced study in negotiation, mediation, arbitration and restorative justice: a practice-oriented postgraduate programme integrating ethical dispute resolution, African and Global South perspectives, and a compulsory, supervised Research Thesis.
- Who it is for
- Legal practitioners, ADR practitioners and justice-sector professionals. Open to candidates who will complete the compulsory, supervised Research Thesis.
- Duration
- Minimum 1.5 academic years (18 months); maximum 4 academic years, under University regulations.
- Mode of delivery
- Blended: roughly 40% physical, 30% live online and 30% asynchronous. Teaching runs in scheduled blocks, ordinarily the last weekend of the month (Thursday to Saturday) when in session.
Executive Master of Laws (LLM) in Dispute Resolution
Advanced study in negotiation, mediation, arbitration and restorative justice: a practice-oriented postgraduate programme integrating ethical dispute resolution, African and Global South perspectives. Eight taught modules, without the Research Thesis.
- Who it is for
- Legal practitioners, ADR practitioners and justice-sector professionals. Open to candidates who will not undertake the Research Thesis.
- Duration
- Minimum 1.5 academic years (18 months); maximum 4 academic years, under University regulations.
- Mode of delivery
- Blended: roughly 40% physical, 30% live online and 30% asynchronous. Teaching runs in scheduled blocks, ordinarily the last weekend of the month (Thursday to Saturday) when in session.
Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Dispute Resolution
Advanced study in negotiation, mediation, arbitration and restorative justice: a practice-oriented postgraduate programme integrating ethical dispute resolution, African and Global South perspectives, and a compulsory, supervised Research Thesis. The same programme as the LLM in Dispute Resolution, designed for non-lawyers.
- Who it is for
- Graduates and professionals without a law degree (non-lawyers) who wish to specialise in dispute resolution. Open to candidates who will complete the compulsory, supervised Research Thesis.
- Duration
- Minimum 1.5 academic years (18 months); maximum 4 academic years, under University regulations.
- Mode of delivery
- Blended: roughly 40% physical, 30% live online and 30% asynchronous. Teaching runs in scheduled blocks, ordinarily the last weekend of the month (Thursday to Saturday) when in session.
The people who teach and supervise
Scholars and practitioners from the School of Law and beyond.
Prof. J Osogo Ambani, LLD
A renowned public law scholar and educator, he holds extensive expertise in constitutional law, devolution, and postgraduate legal curriculum development.
Read full profile
Prof. J. Osogo Ambani is the Dean of the Kabarak University School of Law and a premier academic leader at the African Centre for Governance, Leadership and Ethics (ACGLE). A renowned public law scholar and educator, he holds extensive expertise in constitutional law, devolution, and postgraduate legal curriculum development. A champion of transformative legal education, his core governance and decolonial credentials anchor his research and pedagogy.
He is the author of Africa and the Decolonisation of State-Religion Policies (Brill, 2021) and The Peoples’ Law: Toward a New Common Law for Africans (2021), works that critically confront the dualities of colonial legal inheritance and advocate for a defensible balance between imported structures and lived indigenous customary laws.
Throughout his distinguished career, Prof. Ambani has spearheaded regional academic governance initiatives, forged key collaborations with national and international judicial academies, and pioneered progressive academic frameworks, such as the African Feminist Judgments project. Under his stewardship, the Kabarak Law School has cemented its niche as Kenya’s premier good governance academy, actively striving at ACGLE to equip the next generation of African judicial, legal, and public sector professionals with deep ethical clarity, decolonial perspectives, and visionary governance skills.
Professor Ambreena Manji
Subject Lead - Master of Laws in Judicial Science
Her research is in African law and society, and is strongly interdisciplinary: law in African literature and history, legal education, and women and the law.
Read full profile
Ambreena Manji is Professor of Land Law and Development at Cardiff University. Before that, she was Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa.
Her research is in African Law and Society. It is strongly interdisciplinary and includes work on law in African literature, African history, legal education, and women and the law.
Ambreena is the author of The Struggle for Land and Justice in Modern Kenya (2020) and is completing her book The Land Struggles of Indigenous People: Recovering Kenya.
She has held academic posts at the Universities of Warwick and Keele. She has been a visiting fellow at the Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town and at Dar es Salaam Law School; a Global Teaching Fellow at Melbourne Law School; and Dame Lillian Penson Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.
Ambreena served as President of the African Studies Association UK from 2018 to 2020. Between 2020 and 2025 she was co-editor of African Affairs, the top-ranked journal in African Studies. She is a Full Adjunct Professor of Public Law at Kabarak Law School and a Visiting Full Professor at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin. She was Director of the 2026 Feminist Institute of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) in Dakar, Senegal. In November 2026 she becomes President of the British Institute in Eastern Africa.
She was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales in 2020, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and of the Royal Historical Society in 2024.
Professor Steve Ouma Akoth
Subject Lead - Master of Laws in Dispute Resolution
His work spans social and cultural theory, urban studies, land governance, gender justice, alternative justice systems, human rights in late capitalism, and social movements.
Read full profile
Prof. Steve Ouma Akoth is an adjunct Associate Professor of Dispute Resolution at Kabarak Law School and the Director of Postgraduate Studies at Tangaza University, where he also heads the PhD programme in Social Transformation. He is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Human Rights at Tangaza University. He studied at Moi University in Eldoret and the University of Nairobi, and later at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, where he earned advanced degrees in anthropology and law. Human rights and social justice have been his abiding concerns.
Prof. Akoth’s work spans social and cultural theory, urban studies, land governance, gender justice, alternative justice systems (AJS), human rights in late capitalism, and social movements. His research takes a historical approach to human agency. It asks how people in postcolonial settings come to know and practise human rights and justice, and how they adapt their practices along the way.
He has taught and researched all his working life, and he has never separated that work from his activism against totalitarian governance. Right now, he is modelling freedom-centred options for access to justice. Decolonial and critical legal theory, legal pluralism and engaged anthropology run through his teaching and research. He has supervised numerous doctoral and master’s students to completion, serves as an external examiner for multiple universities internationally, and has led major research and consultancy projects for national governments, IGAD, UN agencies, and international foundations. He also participated in conceptualising and writing the Social Transformation Through Access to Justice (STAJ) Blueprint for the Judiciary in Kenya.
Working with Justice (Prof.) Joel Ngugi, he contributed to a process that critiqued Western legal hegemonies and court centralism and laid the foundation for the study and promotion of AJS across Kenya. He is committed to engaged, multidisciplinary scholarship that bridges academia, policy, and community practice. A sought-after facilitator for high-level judicial training on AJS, he has led training and engagement sessions for judges of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court, and the Kadhi’s Court, as well as magistrates and AJS practitioners across Kenya.
He is currently a 2025 fellow of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) for the Meaning-making Research Initiatives (MRI). He also serves as Vice Chairperson of the National Steering Committee on the Implementation of AJS in Kenya.
Dr Rosemary Mwanza
Senior Lecturer, Kabarak University School of Law
Her research lies at the intersection of environmental law, human rights and corporate accountability, with a particular focus on Africa.
Read full profile
Dr Rosemary Mwanza is Head of Department at the African Centre for Governance, Leadership and Ethics (ACGLE) and Senior Lecturer at Kabarak University School of Law. Before joining Kabarak University, she was a Research Fellow at Stockholm University, Sweden, and previously taught law at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa.
Her research lies at the intersection of environmental law, human rights and corporate accountability, with a particular focus on Africa.
Dr Mwanza holds a Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) from the University of Eastern Finland, where she received the Primus Doctor distinction and the Faculty Young Researcher Award. She also holds an LL.M. from the University of Southern California and an LL.B. from the University of Nairobi. She is admitted to the New York Bar.
Modules, lectures and announcements
What is happening at the Centre, and what is coming next.
Transformative Constitutionalism and Judicial Activism
A module of the Judicial Science programme on constitutional interpretation, judicial activism and the evolving role of courts in advancing substantive justice.
Reimagining Adjudication: The Feminist Judgments Project
The five-day pilot module of the Master of Laws (LLM) in Judicial Science.
Admissions: admissions@kabarak.ac.ke · +254 20 2114658
Office of the Dean: deanlaw@kabarak.ac.ke
Kabarak University, Private Bag 20157, Kabarak, Kenya

