The end of Kenya School of Law's monopoly could give law graduates more options, but the cost of setting up competing programmes could determine whether students actually benefit.

The new legal education regulations opened the Advocates Training Programme to public and private institutions, ending the Kenya School of Law's 18-year monopoly on professional bar training.

But institutions seeking to offer the programme will have to meet costly standards. They will pay an initial accreditation fee of Sh5 million and another Sh5 million every three years for renewal.

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They must also maintain a maximum of 40 trainees in a lecture hall, a ratio of one instructor for every 10 trainees and at least three full-time faculty members. For every two part-time trainers, there must be one full-time instructor.

Attorney General Dorcas Oduor said the changes should bring certainty to a system that has faced years of legal battles and uncertainty.

"Taken together, these regulations bring much-needed certainty to a legal education sector that has, for close to a decade, been marked by prolonged litigation and policy uncertainty. That is not a sustainable basis upon which to train the lawyers who will serve our constitutional democracy."

The regulations were handed over to Oduor on Wednesday by the Council of Legal Education, chaired by Prof Collins Odote.

They implement the Court of Appeal's 2025 decision in the case of Stephen Nikita Otinga v Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Education and three Others, which declared Section 16 and the Second Schedule to the Kenya School of Law Act unconstitutional.

Otinga had challenged a system that had left KSL struggling with growing numbers of law graduates. The case raised concerns about inadequate resources and mass failures among candidates undertaking the Advocates Training Programme.

KSL currently has more than 1,500 students enrolled in its Advocates Training Programme, according to the school's website.

The new framework therefore promises more capacity. But it also raises another question. How much will universities have to spend to establish a programme that meets the new standards, and how much of that cost will eventually be passed on to students?

KSL's published fee structure puts the cost of its ATP at Sh145,000 for East African students, although the detailed fee schedule available on its website is an older document. The school separately requires payment of Bar examination fees to the Council of Legal Education.

The new regulations do not set a common tuition fee for competing ATP providers. This means universities entering the market could charge different amounts.

Competition could therefore produce lower fees if institutions compete for students. But the opposite could happen if providers try to recover the substantial cost of establishing and maintaining the programmes.

The cost of accreditation is only one part of that investment.

Providers must maintain the required lecturer-to-student ratios, classrooms and other facilities. They must also meet standards for libraries, research, student services and infrastructure.

For legal education providers generally, the regulations require at least five per cent of their budgets to go to library resources, another five per cent to research and publications, five per cent to student services and 10 per cent to infrastructure development.

The companion Licensing and Quality Assurance Regulations also require institutions offering undergraduate law degrees to maintain at least one academic staff member for every 20 students and at least four full-time academic staff members.

Licensing an undergraduate law programme will cost Sh3 million, while a diploma programme will attract a Sh1.6 million licensing fee.

The changes are therefore unlikely to produce a sudden rush of new law schools.

Instead, universities will have to decide whether the potential income from professional legal training justifies the investment needed to meet the new requirements.

For students, however, the benefits could go beyond fees.

A larger number of accredited institutions could mean more training places and less pressure on a single institution. It could also allow students to study professional law closer to where they live instead of moving to Nairobi.

The new rules also introduce tighter controls intended to prevent the problems that contributed to the legal challenge against the old system.

Trainees must complete the ATP within a maximum of five years and score at least 50 per cent in each unit.

A student who needs to resit a unit will pay Sh10,000, while remarking will cost Sh15,000.

The programme also requires six months of monitored pupillage at approved centres, with a maximum ratio of three pupils to one trainer.

Institutions that breach the regulations face penalties of up to Sh1 million or imprisonment for up to six months for general contraventions.

There is also a two-year transitional pre-Bar examination costing Sh10,000 per candidate. It is intended for people who would otherwise have been eligible for enrolment but were excluded under the previous system.

The Kenya School of Law itself has been given two years to operate without seeking accreditation under the new framework. After that period, it will have to apply for accreditation like the other providers.

The regulations also retain controls at the beginning of the legal education pipeline.

Students seeking admission to undergraduate law programmes must have a mean grade of C+ at KCSE and at least a B plain in English or Kiswahili.

For universities, the financial requirements do not end with accreditation. Providers must demonstrate they have adequate infrastructure, academic staff and other resources to support their programmes.

The changes therefore create a new legal education market, but it will not be an unregulated market.

The Council of Legal Education will decide whether institutions have the capacity to offer the ATP and can determine the maximum number of trainees each programme may admit based on its facilities, library and human resources.

The reforms are also not yet fully operational.

They still have to go through statutory processes under Section 46 of the Legal Education Act, including public participation, parliamentary scrutiny and official gazettement.

Oduor said regulations alone would not solve all the problems facing legal education and called for a unified National Legal Education Policy to deal with financial barriers and the long-term sustainability of the sector.

"Our measure of success should ultimately not be the number of regulations we enact or institutions we license," she said. "It should be whether a young Kenyan who chooses to study law can enter that journey with clarity, fairness and confidence.”