Moi University has accused Council for Legal Education chief executive Kulundu Bitonye of “getting personal” with the licensing of universities that offer legal education. Through its Law Dean, Maurice Oduor, the university says it will be moving to court protest over Prof Bitonye’s methods, and have him answer to contempt of court charges.
In September last year, CLE closed down the institution’s School of Law for failing to meet council standards, which are a prerequisite for offering legal education. Among these were that the university had been admitting too many students, and facilities that did not meet the threshold for accreditation. The university moved to court and obtained stay orders against the decision by CLE, which the council allegedly ignored.
“We are also seeking minutes of the board which authorised him to publish names of universities that offer law because as far as we are concerned, there is no board at the CLE,” Oduor told the Nairobi Law Monthly.
Attempts to get Bitonye to comment were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, at the Mount Kenya University School of Law in Parklands (pictured), it is back to business after the High Court nullified a decision by CLE that ceased to recognise MKU’s legal training programme.
CLE suspended MKU’s’s Bachelor of Laws degree programme in January. MKU has been operating on a provisional accreditation licence since 2010 when it started offering the course. The regulator had ordered MKU to suspend its law programme until a decision was reached on whether or not to award the university permanent accreditation. The suspension was successfully appealed.
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