Strathmore University students advanced to the round of 16 in the 28th annual Willem C. Vis Moot competition.
Strathmore Law School team of Baraka Wanyanga, Fenan Estifanos, Irene Muhoro and Winnie Nakkazi Kiberu beat teams from Harvard, Columbia and Fordham universities.
The competition, established in 1994 attracted at least 400 teams from different law schools around the world. Only five teams from Africa featured at the competition.
“We spent sleepless nights and long hours preparing. Being an African team, the odds were against us but the result is satisfactory,” said Estifanos.
The team beat Stetson University from the US in the round of 64 and Saarland University from Germany in the round of 32 before advancing to the round of 16 where we were eliminated.
“This accomplishment truly meant an incredible deal to the students, myself as the coach and to the Strathmore community,” Mr Stephen Fleischer, the head coach said.
The students made their arguments before veteran arbitration practitioners, world-renowned scholars and even members of the United Kingdom’s House of Lords. For their excellent performance in the competition, they won four awards.
They received honourable mentions for the Eric E. Bergsten Award for proceeding to the elimination rounds. They also bagged the Martin Domke Award for being ranked as some of the best individual oralists in the competition out of 1600 students.
In the history of the Vis Moot, no sub-Saharan school has ever advanced to this stage according to the head coach.
“The Strathmore team is extremely grateful for the experience to interact with some of the biggest names in the world of international arbitration and to receive praise for their oratory skills and their grasp of the legal issues.
We wish to thank Tabitha Raore of Anjarwalla & Khanna, Naeem Hirani of Oraro & Company, Advocates, John Kiragu of Strathmore University and their for devoting their time and effort to train and encourage the students,” he said.
