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{
    "id": 291981,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/291981/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 606,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Wamalwa",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 148,
        "legal_name": "Eugene Ludovic Wamalwa",
        "slug": "eugene-wamalwa"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I had just started moving this Bill and I had indicated that this is a Bill that provides for establishment of the Council for Legal Education. The Bill also seeks to establish the Legal Education Appeals Tribunal and the regulation and licensing of legal education providers in the country. The intention of this Bill is really to separate the issue of training from the issue of licensing and regulating standards. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I moved the Bill on the Kenya School of Law which is currently going through the Committee Stage and that was supposed to deal with training separately from the issue of licensing. For this Bill, we are setting new standards to make sure that we uphold standards in our professions. I was very pleased yesterday to have presided over a workshop by the Architects and Quantity Surveyors of Kenya where they are also looking at possibilities of separating the Bill that has brought together architects and quantity surveyors and they are seeking the repeal of the Architects and Quantity Surveyors Act and we will be pleased to have the two Bills coming before this House also to regulate the professions of quantity surveyors and architects and to uphold standards. This is also what we seek to do for the legal education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we know that unless we uphold standards, we will have the kind of issues that bedevil this country, particularly issues of quacks and corruption. I have in mind the case of architects and quantity surveyors, right from the 1990s, when Sunbeam, in Nairobi, came down because of poor construction, and all the way to Nyamakima, where buildings came down and caused over 30 people to lose their lives. Recently, in Westlands, another building came down. This tells you that there is need to regulate the practice of professionals such as quantity surveyors and architects. When it comes to the legal profession, we have had our share of problems. So, we are saying that as we undergo transformation in all sectors of professions, we must also ensure that we have standards in licensing trainers, particularly those giving legal education, to ensure that they uphold the required standards and ensure that not just any institution can purport to train lawyers in this country. They must be licensed. Before"
}