Students wishing to join or pursue law at the University of Nairobi and Moi University have now found themselves in a state of uncertainty following an announcement by the regulatory bodies of law education in the country that the two institutions operates on expired licenses.
In the public notice published on Tuesday, January 13, the General Council of Legal Education (CLE) stated that the licenses for the University of Nairobi’s Faculty of Law located at Parklands and the Moi University School of Law located at the town of Eldoret had lapsed on the 10th of December 2025 and are yet to be renewed.
Although the two Universities applied to be renewed in November of last year, according to the council, they are yet to be assessed due to compulsory audits.
“Institution (UoN) applied for renewal on the 14th of November, 2025. The application for renewal of licence under review, pending audit and inspection by the Council,” CLE Chief Executive Officer Prof Jack Mwimali stated in the notice. Moi University, he stated, finds itself in the same situation for having applied for the same in the same deadline.
This has left thousands of law students waiting in the wings, wondering what the implication of the delay may be for them, since admission to the Kenya School of Law, which must come from a CLE-accredited institution, may be affected by the delay.
Two other institutions are also caught up in the regulatory net. Chuka University’s license has expired on the same date, December 10, 2025, although the institution has already paid the renewal fees back in April 2025. According to the Council, the university has yet to supply all the necessary documentation to complete the process.
In Kajiado County, UMMA University and African Nazarene University are still operating LLB programs on licenses that have expired. UMMA University applied for renewal on September 18, 2025 and is set to undergo an audit on January 20, 2026, while African Nazarene University applied on November 17, 2025 and is awaiting review.
CLE is also anxious to reassure that the faults highlighted above will in no way imply that the universities are closed or have lost accreditation for now.
“Most institutions are still fully compliant with the various levels of legal education programs,” said Prof Mwimali while explaining that the renewal of the institutions is part of the normal regulatory process that also involves inspections for the maintenance of quality and standards.
The Council has also put out a situation room report on the state of legal education in the country. Currently, there are only four recognized universities with valid licenses to offer the Master of Laws degree: Mount Kenya University, the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), and the Strathmore School of Law.
At the diploma level, the number of approved institutions is four and they include the Kenya School of Law, Kisii University, CUEA, and the Mount Kenya University.
In the case of undergraduate law programs, 16 institutions have been fully approved to undertake the LL.B program. Egerton University, Kabarak University, CUEA, Strathmore Law School, Maseno University, JKUAT, Riara University, Kenyatta University, South Eastern University of Kenya, Daystar University, University of Embu, Kisii University, Mount Kenya University, Zetech University, Tom Mboya University, and Tharaka University are the institutions that have been approved to run law programs. At the moment, all that the students of UoN, Moi, and other institutions can do is wait as the CLE teams readied themselves to come to the campuses to verify whether the licenses will be granted or not.
