The learned friend who rose from rural practice to the LSK Council
Faith Jappan. She was elected as Upcountry Representative to the Law Society of Kenya Council in February 2026.
What you need to know:
- From Covid-era uncertainty to national leadership, Faith Jappan is reshaping Kenya’s legal profession through courage and reform.
- Her journey exposes rural-urban divides, corruption challenges, and the urgent need for accountability within Kenya’s justice system.
When watching Netflix’s series Suits, which revolves around lawyers and law firms, an ordinary viewer might wonder whether the fierce rivalries and high-stakes dilemmas portrayed on screen ever occur in real legal practice.
Faith Jappan provides a real-life answer. She rose from the chair of the Law Society of Kenya’s (LSK’s) Tharaka Nithi Chapter – commonly named Chuka Chapter after the county’s commercial hub – to the national council as the Upcountry Representative. The election was held in February 2026.
Faith was admitted to the bar in 2020 at the height of Covid-19; she entered the profession at a moment she describes as deeply uncertain. “The whole of 2020 was just confusion. And we didn’t know what to do,” she recalls.
With courts shifting to virtual operations and little clarity on the future, she moved away from the city to practise in Tharaka Nithi, a decision she had long considered. “In my mind, I always knew I wanted to move to the countryside … with an expansion in the rural economy… there has been an increasing need for legal practice in the rural regions,” she says.
Devolution came with the promulgation of the Constitution in 2010, but officially took effect following the March 2013 General Election, presenting more opportunities for Kenyans. When she arrived in Chuka in 2021, she says, she found a legal community struggling to regain momentum after the pandemic.
Three years later, she stepped into leadership, successfully vying for the position of chapter chair, driven by a determination to revive it. Her tenure as chair would prove to be both formative and fraught. She says she pushed for inclusivity, structured engagement, and accountability in how resources were used.
Community outreach
At the same time, she encouraged real community outreach and meaningful legal aid, challenging practices she felt were superficial. “Can we just actually be impactful?” she recalls asking colleagues.
But her push for reform, particularly her insistence on financial accountability and audits, was met with resistance. “I received a lot of opposition … They started circulating rumours that … I was a quack.”
The attacks, she says, were rooted in perceptions about belonging. “It didn’t sit well with me that an advocate can be intimidated, harassed, or even accused of ridiculous things just because they are not from a particular place.”
Instead of retreating, she held her ground. For her, that experience was a defining moment in her legal career. It sharpened her resolve to advocate fairness and inclusion within the profession, particularly for lawyers practising outside traditional power centres, especially Nairobi.
Her experience also exposed what she saw as institutional gaps. When disputes escalated, she says, they were not addressed at the national level, reinforcing her belief that countryside practitioners needed a stronger voice within the LSK, a voice she sees herself as providing.
Alongside these leadership battles, her work as an advocate continued to shape her outlook. One matter in particular stands out: a pro bono case she took on after seeing a woman’s story circulate on social media.
“She had gone through a bad experience and she was depressed. I felt touched and I was like, okay, ‘I’m going to reach out to this woman and do her case for free,’” she says. “When I started engaging with her, she became strong. She became better and she re-established herself.”
She says the experience deepened her commitment to help Kenyans access justice. “I told myself: ‘If I ever get the opportunity to sit at a table where decisions are made, I would ensure that the question of pro bono services becomes actualised so that we make positive impact on the lives of the people we serve.’”
That opportunity came with her election to the LSK Council, where her agenda is shaped by the realities she has encountered both in leadership and in practice. At the top of her priorities is equality within the profession. Having worked in rural settings, she notes that urban practitioners are often perceived as superior to their rural counterparts.
Prestige of city practice is a perception
While she acknowledges the prestige often associated with city practice, she challenges the idea that success is tied to geography. “The perception that has been created is: ‘You can only succeed as an advocate if you practise in Nairobi,’” She says. “This has resulted in overcrowding in Nairobi. So many advocates in Nairobi now have no work, yet you just go to a countryside station and you will still do great.”
Her focus is to “advocate profitable and decent countryside practice,” building structures that make it viable and attractive. She is also focused on confronting corruption within the justice system, an issue she speaks about with unusual candour. “We’ve normalised corruption in the Judiciary… even at the bar,” she says, adding that this has eroded professional integrity and public trust.
Her other priority is mentorship, which she sees as essential to sustaining the profession. Drawing from her experience managing a diverse chapter, she advocates for structured systems that support lawyers at all stages. “We need to have structured ways of mentorship. We actually co-mentor with each other.”
The values guiding her leadership are rooted in her everyday practice: integrity, rule of law, commitment, and a sincere passion to have a profession and a society that serves the public well.
On gender equity and safe working environments, she argues that silence has allowed abuse to persist within the profession. She points to a culture that protects senior practitioners at the expense of vulnerable colleagues. Her proposed solution includes anonymous reporting systems to encourage accountability. For her, transparency is key, noting: “Sunshine is the best disinfectant. Simply publish and expose these people.”
As she reflects on her journey, from a young advocate navigating a pandemic to a contested chapter chair to a national representative, her guiding philosophy remains simple: “In faith we go.”
