Confer ‘senior counsel’ title sparingly

The latest cohort of 54 senior counsel sworn in by President William Ruto on December 11, 2025 is too soon for the recent applications for conferment of more advocates to the role.

This has brought into focus the viability of maintaining the prestige that comes with the position as against the rapid numbers that are likely to be enlisted in what is now turning out to be an annual ritual.

The Committee on Senior Counsel stands the risk of diluting prestige and rarity of the title. There is a need, therefore, to restrict the frequency and/or cap the numbers within any given period to keep the title as exceptionally elite as it should be.

The worry is that the title has started to mirror political awards rather than strictly earned legal eminency. We have seen political bigwigs with no known legal eminence being conferred the title yet their names are, at best, associated with disobedience of court orders and circumventing and/or breach of the rule of law.

Rise in political leadership seems to be an introduction to the qualifications, outside the law, that has encouraged many applicants to seek consideration. A high frequency in advertisement for applicants will dilute the title, long considered as a rare honour reserved for exceptional, eminent, distinguished lawyers.

A balanced approach should be taken to limit conferment of the title to a small number of candidates in order to maintain integrity of the bar. The conferment of the said title is premised on the provisions of Section 17 of the Advocates Act and Rule 5 and 7 of the Advocates (Senior Counsel Conferment and Privileges) Rules 2011, which envisage consideration of applications every year.

The committee, however, has a discretion and leeway under the rules to choose when to seek applications and/or consider them, not necessarily on a yearly basis.

We have to appreciate, as humans, that not many of us can excel and be exceptionally distinguished in our careers. Such rare human achievements can only be attributed to a few.

The rules set out the criteria for conferment which generally require one to have practiced as an advocate for at least 15 years and must possess sound knowledge of law and professional competence, has argued a substantive matter in superior, regional and/or international court, is a person of integrity, irreproachable professional conduct and good character, has actively served the society or other regional/international bar associations, and/or has undertaken community service and, more importantly, has contributed to the development of the legal profession through scholarly writings and presentation.

The 2026 list of senior counsel has 146 applicants. In 2025, the committee recommended 54 of the 105 applicants. If the 2025 conferment is anything to go by, this year's may again be more than half the number of applicants. Should that trend be maintained every year, the title could lose meaning. It may as well not even serve the purpose of being a siren to clear traffic in the long court queues during hearing of matters, as reckoned by one senior counsel recently.

One burning question, however, that comes to mind of every Kenyan is why Dr John Khaminwa is yet to be awarded this prestigious honour—even going by just the consideration of the sheer number of years he has clocked in the practice of law, more than 50 and counting. I hope after this year's conferments the question will never again beg for an answer.

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Mr Sumba is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya.