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"id": 416048,
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"speaker_name": "Hon. Njagagua",
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"speaker": {
"id": 2336,
"legal_name": "Charles Muriuki Njagagua",
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"content": "through the governors, the Members of County Assembly and even the Senators. Under the LSK, we must agree that they have set out branches. This means that we will be having branches, which will be taking care of upcountry members of the society. For a long time, and I believe you will agree with me, the LSK has been governed from Nairobi and those members in Kitale, Mombasa and Embu, the county I come from, were feeling that they were being left out because important decisions that pertain to the LSK never used to get to them on time. So, I must congratulate the drafters of this Bill and even the LSK for agreeing to have as many branches as possible and even putting a clause that provides that the branches are not cast on stone and marble and that if and when need arises, those branches again will be expanded. Second, I must also say that the Bill is very clear on continuous legal education. For a long time, we have seen lawyers who have been to college in the olden days and never have had a chance to look at new legislation and best practices in other jurisdictions in the world. This Bill also takes care of that. It is not that when you pass your bar classes after you are through with the law school, you just go sit back and only remember what we call the Civil Procedure and the Criminal Procedure and those are the tools that you arm yourself with, like we would say the preacher and the Bible. So, I must again laud the members of the LSK for taking care of continuous education. Similarly, the Bill is also very clear on matters of tutorage, so that those young lawyers who leave our law school will come to the chambers and master people relationship. Again, they will guide the young lawyers on the ways of the practice. Thirdly, we must agree that it has now become very expensive to go to law school. You know that in the olden times, we would even get an allowance at the law school. Today, the fees is about Kshs200,000 or thereabout. Like a Member who spoke before me, this is stifling proper acquisition of legal skills. There are people who have gone through secondary education and even university under the assistance of the CDF kitty through bursaries, but when they go to the law school, they are told to pay Kshs200,000. Where will they get this money? We must appreciate that by the time you are being admitted to the law school, you are not salaried. In fact, you are a student. At best, you have just come from a law firm where you are a pupil. We all know that at pupilage, you get peanuts. You just get a small allowance from your master. So, at some point, we need to rethink that position and let the Kenya School of Law not become a commercial college. It is a college that is supported with funds from Kenyans and so, it must serve Kenyans. It should not be purely a commercial venture. Again, the Bill is very clear on the rights of members, members who have been involved in matters pertaining to the organisation will be meeting in special general meetings, so that if there are any issues that come up, members can tackle them. This is participatory democracy and the members by themselves can agree on the best way to govern the society. Again, on the issue of the conduct of elections, with a lot of respect to this House and with a lot of respect to the electoral processes in this country, I would urge the members, scholars, political analysts and Kenyans of all shades to borrow a leaf from what we say in the just concluded LSK elections. They were fair, free and democratic. This is past what we used to have in the olden days when elections were done through the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}