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"id": 288421,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/288421/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Ms. Karua",
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"speaker": {
"id": 166,
"legal_name": "Martha Wangari Karua",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will be very brief to accommodate the sentiments of my colleague here. I am a product of the law school because after graduating from the university, to turn the degree professional, one has to go to the law school. I am happy and I congratulate the Minister for bringing this Bill. I also congratulate the Minister for Education who actually sent the Bill for publication and the current Minister for moving it at this time. We need a legal framework. The law school has existed without a legal framework of its own, but in this time when it is serving so many people, it needs a legal framework. During our time, we were just about 70 and that was considered a very large group because it previously had less than 40 students. Today, the law school is having in excess of 1,000 students every year. I do not know how many times that is. It is important that we have this legal framework, so that we maintain standards, so that we also maintain professionalism among the staff, both teaching and non-teaching, at the law school. I recall that the days I attended the law school, our parents did not have to pay money. Just like at the university, we had loans which even provided us with some allowances every month. Today, the parents are paying through the nose. This is something we need to consider and I am glad to note that the law school will be guided by a board because the decision that must be made is how to efficiently run the school, so that poor parents do not suffer by being unable to pay for their children in the law school. It is time Government institutions learnt to rely on the turn-over, namely, the large numbers, rather than to hike the fees every time they are told to look for sources of operating. I have heard my colleague talk about lawyers and how standards have degenerated. It is not about teaching or the lack of qualifications; this is not what is responsible for the lack of the quality among the lawyers who are trained. I am one person who believes that during our time, they demanded very high, almost unattainable marks because the positions were so limited. They were only 75. When we have so many universities taking so many, it is befitting that our children who have attained Grade C and above be admitted to train as lawyers. They have the capacity. You do not have to score an A. Grade C is good, but then, once you get to the school, we should be worried about proper instructions. This Bill is setting that framework that will help them arrive at proper training. Lawyers do not operate in a vacuum. They operate within the context of the society. If the society is rotten, its professionals will be rotten. Let us admit that we, as Kenyans, have lowered our standards. Our values are upside-down. We have had to re-write our national values in the Constitution. Until we start living those national values as leaders, we should not be heard to lament the un-professional conduct of lawyers. If we who are in this Parliament and those who serve in Government sometimes exhibit conduct that is less than honourable, then we are setting the standards in the country. This is a time for us to re-think our values and to live the values as provided for in our Constitution. I only want to comment on the proposed Section 27. Mr. Minister, if someone masquerades as a lawyer, if all you are going to ask is that he or she be put in for one year, and he or she has, perhaps, misled a client, received client’s money, got documents of value from the client, that is too light a punishment and it will encourage crooks. Let us look at tightening enforcement so that we can maintain the standards we are talking about."
}