691 miss out on key law school entry

By Jeff Andrew Lule

Close to 700 law graduates from various universities failed to qualify for the Bar course at the Law Development Centre (LDC) after falling short in the pre-entry exams.

According to the results released by the Law Council on Friday, only 405 out the total 1,090 lawyers who sat the exams passed.

Notable among those who failed are Rose Nayanja (State minster in-charge of Luweero), MPs Barnabas Tinkasimire (Buyaga West), Theodere Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga) and Lydia Wanyoto, a former East African Assembly legislator.

All law graduates are subject to pre-entry exams before they can be enrolled for the Bar course at LDC – only if successful though.

The exams were introduced by the Law Council in 2010 following the high failure rate at LDC in the previous years.

The university spokesperson, Hamis Lukyamuzi said those who failed have to wait until the next entry due next year.

“They can sit them [pre-entry exams] as many times as they want but there isn’t any other way to enter LDC. Let them go back and prepare for another entry next year,” he said.

 So those who failed will have to sit the exams again next year.  It means they are not entitled to become practicing lawyers, for now.

Lukyamuzi said Makerere University (MUK) and Uganda Christian University (UCU) had more lawyers pass the exams than the other universities.

Out of the 364 lawyers who sat the exam from MUK, 209 qualified, while UCU qualified 113 out of 375.

Kampala International University qualified 29 out of 117, Islamic University in Uganda 24 out of 154, Nkumba University 12 out of 47, Uganda Pentecostal University six out of the 23 and University of Dar-es-Saalam qualified four out of seven.

Moi University, University of London, University of Hull and University College of Northampton recorded one student each, while University of Kent at Canterbury, University of Berdfordshire, Catholic University of East Africa and London Metropolitan University qualified no student.

In Uganda, LDC is the only institution that offers the postgraduate diploma in law (Bar course) for one to be allowed to practice law in the country.