The high rate of bar exam failures at the Kenya School of Law (KSL) is showing a worrying trend, with the latest data from the Council of Legal Education (CLE) indicating that of the 1,834 candidates who sat the November 2025 exam, only 397 passed all nine units offered.
This, even as female candidates outwitted their male colleagues in the performance of the bar exam also known as the Advocates Training Programme (ATP).
CLE administers ATP at the KSL as a prerequisite for admission to the bar as advocates of the High Court of Kenya, with candidates examined in nine units, which they are required to pass before they are admitted.
The bar exams were administered from November 13, 2025, to November 25, 2025, with CLE admitting that the high failure rate indicates a worrying trend in the legal fraternity.
“Overall, the November 2025 examinations reflect a dip in performance compared to the November 2024 ATP examination,” reads CLE’s public notice on exam release, published on its website.
Despite acknowledging the high failure rate, CLE has not suggested policy measures it is planning to employ to improve the performance.
The CLE notice shows that during the examination series, 2,968 candidates sat for the examination out of which 1,835 were registered as regular and 1,133 registered as resit candidates.
However, the highest performance was recorded in ATP 104- Trial Advocacy- which had a 97.49 percent pass rate with the lowest performance recorded in ATP 105- Professional Ethics- with a 25.38 percent pass rate.
“This is the third time in a row that ATP 105 has recorded the lowest pass rates and CLE takes note of this worrying trend about the unit’s performance,” the CLE notice reads.
The latest CLE data shows that students have continued to fail the bar examination for the last 15 years sparking fears over whether they will ever petition the Chief Justice to be admitted to the bar.
To be admitted as an advocate of the High Court, one is required to pass all nine units offered during the 12 months of study at KSL, Karen, Nairobi area.
One qualifies for admission at KSL after graduating with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from a recognized university that offers the programme.
The March 2023 bar examination results, printed on June 13, 2023, and posted on the CLE website, show that students who were admitted at KSL in 2008 and 2009 will continue to re-sit their exams for the longest time until they are adjudged to have qualified.
This means that until they pass their bar exam, they cannot practice law or undertake legal consultancy in Kenya, though they can be hired as company secretaries.
The bar exam is marked by a different set of professionals- judicial officers, among them Judges, practicing advocates, officers from the office of the Attorney General, the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) law lecturers and accountants, among others.
When a candidate fails one or all of the nine examinable ATP units, it means that they must re-sit the failed papers within five years from the first date of administration.
If the five years lapse before a candidate re-sits, they begin the entire ATP programme afresh, an indication that there could be candidates who have re-sat the entire course three times, which is 15 years cumulatively, assuming that they were first admitted at KSL in 2010.
To qualify for admission to the bar, a candidate must score at least 50 percent in all nine subjects offered and also pass an oral examination and a written project in all subjects.
When sitting the examination for the first time the oral examination accounts for 20 percent of what one requires to achieve the 50 percent or above mark with the project accounting for another 20 percent.
The written examination at the end of the 12-month post-graduate course accounts for 60 percent of the total marks.
In theory, therefore, a candidate who scores all marks in the oral test and project needs only 10 percent to score the 50 percent pass mark.
On top of these conditions, a trainee Advocate must also undergo a six months supervised pupillage under an Advocate of six or more years in practice post admission to the bar in Kenya.
Despite the high failure rate, CLE says that it has been undertaking various reforms in the administration of the ATP examination including its administration, setting, marking and release of the results.
“In undertaking this process, CLE is guided by its vision of developing innovative legal professionals through transformative legal education and training in Kenya,” CLE says.
This as it boasted of promoting quality legal education through responsive regulation, administering the ATP examinations and fostering “sustained stakeholder engagement.”
CLE further notes that as part of its commitment to evidence-based decision making, it actively engages stakeholders to align legal training with emerging trends in legal practice including through forums such as the future of legal education whose outcome will inform CLE’s policy and administrative decisions.
