The South Eastern Kenya University (SEKU) School of Law (SoL) is located at the Main Campus, Kwa Vonza, on a 10,000-acre land, serene and tranquil environment, surrounded by fresh air, beautiful flora and fauna, and spectacular panoramic scenes, and is one of the best and most conducive environments for learning, teaching, and carrying out research and innovation. The SEKU SoL is the latest complement of the seven autonomous schools of SEKU, including the following:
- School of Agriculture, Environment, Water and Natural Resources
- School of Science and Computing
- School of Humanities and Social Sciences
- School of Business and Economics
- School of Education
- School of Health Sciences
- School of Engineering and Technology.
The SEKU SoL is a key legacy of our Founding Vice Chancellor, Prof. Geoffrey M. Muluvi and also an achievement for the first chairman of the Council, Prof. Munavu, who held this objective in mind since it was a Constituent College of University of Nairobi. The SEKU SoL was accredited by the Council of Legal Education (CLE) on 29th November 2022 and was awarded a 5-year license for a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) Programme. This was a culmination of a dream, not just for SEKU but for the region. The South Eastern Kenya region had been yearning for a School of Law to address some of the perennial legal challenges that are very unique to the region. These include those specified in the niche areas of the Programme. Such as Laws in Electoral, Sustainable Development, Dryland Agriculture, and Management and Conservation of Natural Resources and Environment. Domestic and gender-based violence and competition for natural resources such as water and pasture leading to intractable disputes, have also been perennial problems for our region.
While legal education will not be a panacea for all these, the local communities have identified the SEKU School of Law as a starting point in collaborating with them to come up with solutions and create jurisprudence that will eventually provide comprehensive and conclusive remedies and innovation. Many of the region's sons and daughters had to travel far to seek legal education, resulting in financial logistical challenges for many. Therefore, the SEKU SoL provides access to legal education for the region by focusing on transforming lives through its unique niche areas of study. Through legal education, research, innovation, and outreach/community services it hopes to provide sustainable solutions and techniques to help address disputes and barriers to accessing clean energy, greening our homes, environment, food security, and good nutrition, access to clean and portable water resources, and provide legal strategies for replenishing the earth in a sustainable manner. Providing legal solutions in a sustainable manner, and ensuring social justice, democracy, and good governance will contribute to building resilient communities and strong institutions.
The Committee on the Establishment of the SEKU SoL, created by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Geoffrey Muluvi, and convened/chaired by the Inaugural Dean, Amb. Dr. Koki Muli Grignon conducted an extensive and far-reaching feasibility study and needs assessment that, in December 2021, resoundingly reported the dire need for a School of Law in South Eastern Kenya Region of Kajiado, Makueni, Kitui, and Machakos Counties. The Respondents in the feasibility study, drawn from all over Kenya and abroad, strongly advocated for the accessibility and affordability of legal education for the Region and identified the need to train legal professionals, well-equipped to provide efficient legal solutions to leadership, democracy, and governance, sustainable development issues, disputes arising from dryland Agriculture and competition for natural resources and management and conservation of the environment, disputes arising from effects of climate change, and disaster risk management. This is why it was proposed that the SEKU SoL Curriculum focuses on the niche areas of providing education in Laws in Electoral, Sustainable Development, Dryland Agriculture, and Management and Conservation of Natural Resources and Environment in a multidisciplinary way.
In an auspicious ceremony held on the 7th day of March 2023 at SEKU, Kwa Vonza Main Campus, Central Administration Building, the Council of Legal Education delivered the accreditation license to the Vice Chancellor of SEKU.