THE GROWING DISJUNCTION BETWEEN LEGAL EDUCATION AND LEGAL PRACTICE IN KENYA: A CASE FOR PEDAGOGICAL REFORM

Authors

  • Augustus Mbila University of Nairobi

Abstract

Professor Langdell’s Case Method of legal education has dominated legal pedagogy since the early 1870s. There are certain competencies that lawyers must acquire to navigate the murky waters of legal practice. These competencies include legal research, negotiation, factual investigation, communication, legal analysis, and drafting. The Case Method and Socratic questioning methods cannot adequately impart these competencies to learners. This study sought to critically analyse Langdell’s case Method and to recommend practical approaches to reforming legal education in Kenya to reduce the growing disjunction with legal practice. The article also analyses pedagogical approaches in Law Schools in Kenya and at the Kenya School of Law and establishes that the approaches are almost similar, yet, ideally, the Kenya School of Law is expected to teach legal practice while Law Schools are expected to teach the academic concept of Law. The article recommends practical, policy and regulatory solutions to addressing this problem.

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Author Biography

Augustus Mbila, University of Nairobi

LL.B. (Hons) (University of Nairobi), LL.M. (Regional Integration and East African Community Law) - (University of Dar es Salaam), PhD. (Candidate), Lecturer in Law, Mount Kenya University, School of Law, Parklands Campus. This paper is the product of lengthy reflections that the author has had after teaching Law for over 5 years now. The data analysed in the paper is a result of experiential studies. The author can be reached on augumtemi@gmail.com or ambila@mku.ac.ke for comments on this paper.

Eastern Africa Law Review

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Published

2026-05-01

Issue

Vol. 52 No. 1 (2025): Eastern Africa Law Review

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2026 Augustus Mbila

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Authors who publish in The Eastern Africa Law Review retain the copyright to their work and grant the University of Dar es Salaam a non-exclusive license to publish, reproduce, and distribute the article.

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, adaptation, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.