The Strathmore Law Clinic, founded in 2016 is a student-run organisation based in Strathmore Law School. The Clinic is driven by its main goal of ‘Access to Justice’. The

Clinic comprises three units: Criminal Justice, Human Rights and Entrepreneurship. Each unit focuses on a special area of law and employs multiple avenues – including various outreach and legal aid programs, advocacy, research, conferences and webinars.

It also harbours a research and communications wing which are aimed at attaining the Clinic’s mandate while enriching the Clinicians’ experiences and interaction with the law in motion. The majority of the clinic’s work is catered for by the students’ funds through their annual membership fee. This is supplemented by funds from different donors who support the Clinic’s goals.

This makes the clinic’s work quite sustainable because a large part of it can be maintained by the clinician’s efforts. They do not need a constant outsourcing of funds. Additionally, the Clinic’s work is published online, reducing the use of paper by the Clinic, thus enhancing the Clinic’s sustainability initiatives.

The Criminal Justice Unit, within the law clinic, works to address insufficiency and inefficiencies that exist in the Kenyan Criminal Justice System. By carrying out numerous projects congruent with this year’s theme “Sustainability; Caring for the people and the planet”, the Criminal Justice Unit has managed to sustain a human-focused perspective in tackling its aim of access to justice for all individuals.

The Remand Project

  • The Remand Project involves assisting remandees in the Nairobi West Prison to draft cross-examination questions and if necessary, submissions. It addresses the problem of lack of legal representation, which is prevalent in the country.
  • In this project, the clinicians receive a case after the remand visit, which takes place every two weeks. The Clinicians will have around two weeks to provide feedback on their progress on their allocated case, before the next remand visit.
  • This work gives Clinicians exposure in drafting legal documents, sharpens their legal research skills, as well as assisting individuals in obtaining justice.
  • This project promotes access to justice as it cares for people’s interactions with the criminal justice system, and is sustainable as it addresses an ongoing legal issue of lack of legal representation by giving the remandees enough knowledge to adequately represent themselves.

The Criminal Handbook Project

  • This project involves a study of the various judicial decisions made towards offences to come up with a simplified handbook that can be applied to assist various institutions in promoting access to justice and caring for and educating the public on the criminal justice system.
  • The study will be based on an in-depth examination of the current judicial decisions that complement or seemingly introduce new principles to be applied in the charging and sentencing of individuals alongside the current position of the law.
  • This ensures that people are adequately informed of the ingredients that constitute different crimes under the penal code, so that they are able to defend themselves, and are aware of what ingredients the prosecution has to prove for them to be convicted.
  • Since the handbook is to be published online, it reduces the paper consumption by the clinic, leading to a much more environmentally conscious Clinic

The Appeals Project

  • The Appeals project is a new project that is centred around helping convicted people in prison file their appeals by drafting for them the necessary documents such as a petition to appeal and the submissions.
  • The documents are drafted and later sent to the convicts, who file them themselves in prison. This project is done in partnership with the paralegal office at the Nairobi West Prison.
  • The Clinicians receive these cases during the same visit as those of the Remand Project, thus cutting down on the number of trips we make to the prison.

The human rights unit has taken part in various initiatives that are in line with this year’s theme “Sustainability; Caring for the people and the planet”. A lot of the projects in this unit are people-centred with the aim of providing access to legal care in the realm of human rights to members of society who are unable to get it themselves or who face barriers to their acquisition of legal knowledge and care. Jitambue Kisheria project

  • This project entails visits to schools and social justice centres by the Clinicians to give talks to children and youth on selected and relevant topics such as Sexual and Gender-Based Violence(SGBV), child labour and citizenship.
  • This project is executed by members of the clinic after the development of relevant manuals.
  • This project has been an annual tradition for the clinic and it hopes to continue mentoring young people in the coming years.

Wings of Hope Project

  • In this project, the clinic partners with the Wings of Hope Rescue Center to create a mentorship programme for teenage mothers rescued by the home.
  • The clinicians have a preliminary discussion with the mothers on topics that affect them. Afterwards, they carefully craft manuals that address these topics before visiting the rescue centre a second time to have in-depth conversations with the mothers.
  • Additionally, the clinic conducts a charity drive to collect donations which are given to the home for the benefit of the girls.
  • In 2022, the clinic undertook 3 visits to the rescue centre. Urithi Project
  • This project is an extension of the coursework that the students do in their succession law class. The students orchestrate barazas aimed at disseminating awareness on succession matters as well as recording data obtained from interactions with individuals grappling with succession challenges.
  • The clinic aids in the follow-up of these cases through document formulation and research in partnership with the Pro Bono Institute of Kenya.
  • Additionally, the members of the clinic also hold barazas of their own to educate members of society on the Law of Succession. The clinicians are involved in creating informational pamphlets to be used during these barazas.

The Lotus project

  • The law clinic in partnership with the SU wellness centre have come together in this project to enhance the transparency and accessibility of adoption and foster care services.
  • The aim of this is to ensure that individuals seeking adoptive services can comprehend and easily navigate the intricacies involved in the process.
  • The handbook will be put up in the MyStrath App where it will be accessed by anybody who has queries about the adoption and foster care process in Kenya.
  • This ensures that the people are well informed on these issues, and we reduce the use of paper in the clinic by not curating physical copies of the handbook.

The Entrepreneurship unit focuses on empowering small business owners with the legal advice and knowledge on how to properly establish their businesses while adhering to the laws and regulations.

SELC Project

  • The project is aimed at providing legal information and advice to entrepreneurs facing legal challenges but cannot afford legal services. The clients are mainly sourced from partner incubator organisations. The clinicians have a meeting with the client and afterwards offer legal advice under the guidance of an advocate supervisor.
  • This ties in with the theme of Strathmore University, which is caring for people. Educating these entrepreneurs enables them to avoid exploitation and advocate for themselves.

STREET MBA Project

  • The main aim of this project is to educate entrepreneurs on the legal aspects of business. This includes: business registration, intellectual property and more through physical legal workshops. Another aim of this project is to develop a business starter pack manual that explains in a simple manner important aspects of business law.
  • The project is very people-oriented because the clinicians engage with these entrepreneurs and help them understand how best to deal with some of their legal issues. This shows care for these people by interacting with and educating them.

In 2020, the Strathmore Law Clinic set up a research wing that undertakes cutting-edge legal research and analysis in response to topical societal challenges. The research carried out by the students in this Wing focuses on issues that arise within their units, shedding light on these issues. This is carried out through authoring blogs and research papers that focus on these issues. The publishing of these blogs is done online, so as to capture a larger audience and to reduce paper consumption.

The communications wing of the clinic focuses on the promotion of the activities and initiatives of the Law clinic to the society. This is done through newsletters, the Catalyst – our annual magazine – and through various social media pages. This creates a clear picture of the Law Clinic’s activities and outcomes, thus promoting it to the general public and potential donors. It also showcases our services to other people who may be in need of our services. The publishing of the newsletters and magazines is done virtually, thus reducing our carbon footprint on Earth.

Overall, the Strathmore Law Clinic, through its projects and activities implements the annual theme of the year in Strathmore University, which is ‘Sustainability: Caring for People and the Planet’.