Campus is finally ending this Friday, but strangely the feverish excitement that i anticipated has refused to check in- sadly too i must add! For various reasons actually. First, the lack of any campus experience is the lousy side of whole the parallel night school idea, at least for a first degree.The evening appearances for four years doesn't really allow you to do anything exciting that you can write home about- or ficha from your kids when they ask for a narration of the university days of the early 21st century. No tales there on my part!
The second reason, why i suspect i lack enthusiasm is the unemployment rate. Yeah, i know the problem couldnt be more emphasised in every media gadget (blogs included) but it has only recently become real to my mind in the last few weeks. I personally, praise the Lord, have the comfort of having a job to slide into (or continue with). But for the bigger part of my class, full of enthusiastic lawyers (starting Friday) eager to get their legal minds solving problems and anxious to make chums are about to go through what i think will be the most trying period of their lives. Background. For an law graduate to become an Advocate, you first need to have one year of pupillage (internship basically- but where you rigorously carry out research and other work at a law firm), thereafter a diploma must be obtained from the Kenya School of Law ( which involves doing exams- at diploma level! for the same courses that we studied and passed for our LLB). Thats like 1 and a quarter years gone. Then after the School of Law clears you, your name is forwarded to the Chief Justice to find time to gazette your name and swear you in. It usually takes the CJ between 1 and 1.5 years to gazette the names (and woe unto if your called Yvonne or Zeno!) Back to the problem. So first hurdle: my over 300 classmates have to find a law firm among the few firms existing in the country. Second hurdle: survival with the remuneration of a pupil which ranges from KShs. 2,500 to KShs. 12,000. About 5 firms in Nairobi pay between the range of 15-17k and they are terribly competitive at that! Third hurdle, after we complete the one year of pupillage, you have to find your way to School of Law (now situated at Karen) for classes for a period of time, which must be paid for and accomodation sought (major problem for guys who were subsistent on HELB loans). At this time, the law graduate is jobless because the firms don't usually retain after the year of pupillage and he is somehow to survive in Nairobi for the purposes of the School of Law classes, and thereafter start the job hunt again either for a place to hold over as he awaits his admission into the bar, or a place as an Advocate of the High Court. Well, am sure that the events immediately after my last paper tomorrow and our subsequent class party should be incredibly exciting.
It would be bit better, i think, if we'd get our degree and just be thrown into the market- where i then have to struggle and sort myself out. I think that's easier than the hassles that the system forces us to undergo. My take? I think its just a means to have as many people fall out the wayside and thereby limit the number of people who enter the profession.
The second reason, why i suspect i lack enthusiasm is the unemployment rate. Yeah, i know the problem couldnt be more emphasised in every media gadget (blogs included) but it has only recently become real to my mind in the last few weeks. I personally, praise the Lord, have the comfort of having a job to slide into (or continue with). But for the bigger part of my class, full of enthusiastic lawyers (starting Friday) eager to get their legal minds solving problems and anxious to make chums are about to go through what i think will be the most trying period of their lives. Background. For an law graduate to become an Advocate, you first need to have one year of pupillage (internship basically- but where you rigorously carry out research and other work at a law firm), thereafter a diploma must be obtained from the Kenya School of Law ( which involves doing exams- at diploma level! for the same courses that we studied and passed for our LLB). Thats like 1 and a quarter years gone. Then after the School of Law clears you, your name is forwarded to the Chief Justice to find time to gazette your name and swear you in. It usually takes the CJ between 1 and 1.5 years to gazette the names (and woe unto if your called Yvonne or Zeno!) Back to the problem. So first hurdle: my over 300 classmates have to find a law firm among the few firms existing in the country. Second hurdle: survival with the remuneration of a pupil which ranges from KShs. 2,500 to KShs. 12,000. About 5 firms in Nairobi pay between the range of 15-17k and they are terribly competitive at that! Third hurdle, after we complete the one year of pupillage, you have to find your way to School of Law (now situated at Karen) for classes for a period of time, which must be paid for and accomodation sought (major problem for guys who were subsistent on HELB loans). At this time, the law graduate is jobless because the firms don't usually retain after the year of pupillage and he is somehow to survive in Nairobi for the purposes of the School of Law classes, and thereafter start the job hunt again either for a place to hold over as he awaits his admission into the bar, or a place as an Advocate of the High Court. Well, am sure that the events immediately after my last paper tomorrow and our subsequent class party should be incredibly exciting.
It would be bit better, i think, if we'd get our degree and just be thrown into the market- where i then have to struggle and sort myself out. I think that's easier than the hassles that the system forces us to undergo. My take? I think its just a means to have as many people fall out the wayside and thereby limit the number of people who enter the profession.
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