Maintaining excellence in legal education requires more than strong teaching. It calls for regular independent evaluation to ensure academic programmes continue to meet national standards and the changing needs of the legal profession. It was in this spirit that Kabarak University welcomed an accreditation team from the Council of Legal Education (CLE) for a scheduled quality review of its Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) programme as part of the licence renewal process. Under Kenya's legal education framework, institutions offering law programmes are licensed for five years and undergo periodic quality audits and renewal reviews to maintain their accreditation.

The Nyayo Intervarsity Mediation Competition concluded successfully at Kabarak University Law School, bringing to a close several days of rigorous competition, intellectual engagement, and the celebration of excellence in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

The pursuit of justice is not always won in a courtroom. Sometimes, it begins with a conversation. This week, Kabarak Law School became the meeting point for some of Kenya's finest young legal minds as it hosted the Nyayo Intervarsity Mediation Competition, a platform that challenges students to resolve disputes through dialogue, negotiation, and sound legal reasoning.

The Legal Aid Act, No 6 of 2016^[1], was a watershed moment in Kenya’s access-to-justice architecture. Enacted to give effect to Articles 19(2), 48 and 50(2)(g) and (h) of the Constitution of Kenya 2010,^[2] it established the National Legal Aid Service (NLAS)^[3] and, crucially, created the Legal Aid Fund as the financial engine of the entire scheme.^[4]

This blog looks critically at the independence of the National Legal Aid Service (NLAS) in Kenya ten years after the Legal Aid Act 2016 was enacted. Dominant literature on the NLAS has addressed access to justice and funding issues, but there has been insufficient consideration given to whether the institution is independent in practice. This blog, for this reason, aims at filling the void in exploring how far NLAS is independent from external influence.

This blog critically reappraises Kenya’s Legal Aid Act, 2016 (hereinafter the Act), a decade after its enactment, examining whether it has fulfilled its constitutional promise to guarantee access to justice and the right to a fair trial, including legal representation.