Legal education and training in Kenya is at a pivotal moment with Legal Education Providers in Kenya facing myriad challenges. Legal Education Providers compete for students in an environment which has witnessed consistent shrinking of the pool of qualified prospective students over the last three years. Scarcity of funding is also a threat to the sustainability of Schools of Law which in turn affects ability to attract and recruit academic staff or dedicate resources for sustainable growth of learning resources and activities. This situation is not only dire for public institutions which draw their entire budgets exclusively from the public exchequer, but also private institutions which do not have the cushion of public funding. Conversely, regulatory requirements require law schools to ensure strict compliance to ensure quality legal education programmes and Schools of Law are expected, indeed required to bring to the market innovative legal education programmes. The labour market for legal services in Kenya is facing increased competition from non-law firm service providers, changes in technology and pressure to reduce costs for legal representation but this does not altogether take away the market for legal services. Legal Education Providers must therefore adapt and embellish their programmes with market relevant niche programmes and use appropriate pedagogy methodology blending traditional rigours of reading law with skill infusion approaches and therefore distinguishing their programmes by offering law graduates complemented by the right knowledge of law as well as essential basic legal skills such as legal research and analysis, advocacy and critical thinking. There must be a paradigm shift in legal education in Kenya towards a more clinical style programmes to effectively respond to these trends.
Keywords: legal education; legal education in Kenya; clinical legal education
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