High School Law Clubs rolled out by the University of Nairobi have been an instant hit. The initiative is under the School of Law's Mombasa campus Legal Empowerment Programme.
Douglas Mwamboa, a Form 3 student, is the president of the Shimo La Tewa School Law Club.
He says his passion for law studies pushed him to join the law club immediately it was introduced to the school about four months ago.
The project is being supported by the United Nations Development Programme, European Union and Amkeni Wakenya project.
It was conceived to empower the students to shun crime, stay safe from sexual and gender-based violence and pursue assistance if they experience SGBV.
Mwamboa says his club has been meeting frequently.
“I have a passion for legal studies. I have been keenly following what happens in the corridors of justice. I usually watch The Hague proceedings. I watched and followed the George Floyd case in the United States,” he says.
The 17-year-old boy says God willing, he will join the University of Nairobi or any other university within and outside Kenya to pursue law.
His colleague Thomas Mulwa is also a member of the Shimo Law Club, and he joined because of his interest in debating.
“I really enjoy and have fun debating with people,” he says, adding that he also wants to pursue law in future.
For Crispin Otieno, he likes arguing and the law club helps him to build on his career because he wants to study law.
The Shimo La Tewa School Law Club has 30 members, but the club’s patron Paul Said says they had to lock out some students because of excess demand.
Said says the boys have been researching a lot of the cases presented to them by UoN law lecturer Kennedy Asige.
“A good example is the case of Martin Charo and the boys even had to act part of it to understand the case. We had an opportunity to download the videos of that case from YouTube to understand it more,” he says.
Before coming for the moot court competition that had been organised at the UoN Mombasa campus on March 12, the students had to do thorough practice.
“Before coming for this competition, the students realised they can either choose to be argumentative or persuasive. My boys decided to be persuasive,” he says.
At Oshwal Academy, which follows the British curriculum, Manav Devani, a Year 11 student, says he is very passionate about the law.
“It runs in the family, my father is a lawyer,” he says.
Farid Marwa, a Year 12 student, says she also wants to study law in future.
This is the same story with Kreeshi Shavdia, also a Year 12 student.
Shavdia says they have been doing a lot of research work on the cases presented before them by the UoN.
She says as a lawyer, she would defend a child even if they are accused of rape.
“In an actual case, I would defend a child found in conflict with the law,” she says.
Edited by T Jalio