Moi University takes battle for law school to court

Eldoret-based Moi University on Monday took its law school’s accreditation row with the Council for Legal Education (CLE) to court even as details emerged of what led to last week’s order that stopped the teaching of legal courses at the institution.

The university faulted CLE for failing to issue a public notice inviting the public to participate before taking the drastic decision.

It claimed that the council’s demand that the university provides a closure report in respect to the current students for consideration within the next two months was in gross violation of the right to education for the more than 1,000 students enrolled in the course.

The university on Monday sought from the court an order suspending the closure of its law campus and restoring the status quo to enable it continue operating as a legal education provider, pending the hearing and determination of its case.

High Court judge Joseph Onguto, however, declined to handle the matter and withdrew from hearing the case.

“My association with CLE ceased hardly 10 months ago. Consequently, a reasonable and fair minded observer with full facts would not deem me as the person to fairly and impartially adjudicate on this matter and I consequently recuse myself,” he said.

Moi University’s legal officer Wilkister Simiyu said CLE had ordered closure of the university after an August 28 onsite inspection by its Quality Assurance and Compliance Committee for the Bachelors of Law (LLB) programme whose report was attached to the September 23 letter that communicated the decision.

Records of the council’s engagement with the university show that Moi made a string of unfulfilled promises that ultimately culminated to the decision to close the law school.

The school – which had 1,450 students – did not meet the nine parameters required to achieve accreditation from the regulator, according to the inspection report.

The damning 29-page audit details a university offering an undergraduate law programme that was systemically flawed in terms of curriculum, academic staff, infrastructure, library, admission requirements and class sizes.

It even found a quack in the School of Law faculty where only three members of staff have doctorate degrees in law. Moi University has been offering Bachelor’s degree in law since 1994.

“The status of one Dr Daniel Kirui, who has neither an LLB nor PhD in law but taught at the school of law was found wanting,” reads the report. “He does not count in the computation of the staff to student ratio.”

Moi University’s Town Annex Campus was also found to have begun offering Master’s degree in law programmes without seeking clearance from the council.

READ: Catholic, two UoN campuses also seen unfit to train lawyers

The report shows that the council visited Moi University’s law school numerous times since the year 2009 culminating in the final inspection held on August 28, 2015 – during which a decision was made to close the school.

The council detailed its findings and recommendations in six reports - dated December 2009, March 2012, November 2012, September 2013, March 2015 and September 2015 – most of which were largely ignored.

“The institution was required to submit a detailed work plan of corrective action addressing all matters raised in its reports. The plan had to be accompanied by documentary evidence,” the council says in the audit report.

The university made a final promise on April 2, 2015 when it submitted memoranda to the council, making a raft of promises.

First, the university pleaded the indulgence of the council for not registering its postgraduate law programme and promised to submit an application for accreditation the following week.

“No application has been submitted by the institution to date,” says the August report on the Master’s degree in law course leaving the future of about 20 students taking the LL.M course and who were due to graduate this year hanging in the balance.

It also promised to set aside Sh1.6 million for a workshop that was to be held at end of April 2015 to carry out a feasibility study, review the strategic plan and curriculum review.

The institution further informed the council it had put out advertisements in the local dailies seeking professors, senior lecturers, lecturers and assistant lecturers with a view of reducing the staff to student ratio from 1:60 to the regulatory proportion of 1:15.

Henry Lugulu, the acting dean of the School of Law, is a Master’s degree holder.

Moi University further informed the regulator it had allocated Sh10 million to buy additional books and stock its library; and increase the bandwidth to ensure faster internet connections.

A further Sh120 million was to be channelled towards completing a stalled library complex which started in 2012 and is expected to also host a moot court, and rooms for conducting seminars, discussions and tutorials.

The institution of higher learning also promised to devolve the management of funds raked in from its Module II –privately sponsored students –as a strategy to cure delayed payments to lecturers.

The university’s School of Law lecturers went on strike in September 2014 for about two months, citing delayed payments of their dues from the Module II programme. The August 28, 2015 inspection established that the university had kept none of the promises.

“The institution was found non-compliant on the inspection parameters,” concluded the auditors.

“The university retains the same governance structure,” says the report, which found that nothing had been done on the promised devolution of management.

Moi University also remained non-committal on allocating at least five per cent of recurrent expenditure to the School of Law.

“Contrary to expectations and practice, the institution did not provide information on financial commitments before inspection,” the council said.

Furthermore, a report by an independent consultant – ironically appointed by the university – appears to have sealed its fate.

The consultant’s report reported a figure of Sh98 million for the new library, citing the vice chancellor as the source, against the earlier commitment to the regulator of Sh120 million.

The current library can only sit 250 students, the audit established. The new library is expected to double the capacity.

The building will be ready for occupation in early 2016. “The physical facilities at Moi University School of Law are largely incomplete and inadequate. The overall ambience of the School of Law is poor and uninspiring.”

The university disregarded the expert’s study meant to inform the curriculum review and instead the institution prepared its own new law syllabus.

“The acting dean opined that the new curriculum was informed by the feasibility study yet was demonstrably evident that the curriculum was concluded before the expert submitted his report to the university,” says the report.

This independent study helped drive the last nail in Moi University’s School of Law coffin.

“As currently constituted, Moi University’s School of Law has neither the capacity nor the resources to run an LLB or LLM programme,” the consultant’s dossier said.

Moi University informed the regulator that it had hired five additional staff, but the council was unable to figure out the exact size of teaching staff at the institution.

In one list presented on August 21, 2015 there were 33 names but another list dated September 2, 2015 had 29 staff broken down to 26 fulltime lecturers and three part-timers.

The full-time staff included two professors (Tom Ojienda and Nixon Sifuna), six senior lecturers, five lecturers, 11 assistant lecturers, and two tutorial fellows.

Moi University could not demonstrate that Prof Ojienda was based at the institution as a full-time staff.

“Astonishingly, the university is proposing to engage other schools of law to share their senior staff,” the council says in the final report.

Lecturers described the situation as ‘uninspiring and demotivating’ and complained of inadequate books, e-resources, and reference materials, the audit says.

“Surprisingly, only 55 books of the 450 ordered had been delivered since April, 2015,” reads the report pointing out that there were “no budgetary estimates or timelines” on delivery of additional library materials.

The required ratio is one core text book for every five students, meaning the school needed at least 290 books for its student population.

Based on the above parameters, Moi University School of Law scored a 36.5 per cent, against a threshold of 67 per cent as provided for under the Legal Education Act.