Institutional Capacity Building

Three main prerequisites for the rule of law are the principle of legality, respect for human rights and strict adherence to constitutional and other democratic values. All institutions that operationalize the justice sector – such as the judiciary, parliament and other agencies that are involved in the criminal justice system which include the directorate of public prosecutions, the police and the prisons services – are required to strictly abide by the principle of legality, human rights, and other values that underpin open and democratic societies in many developing countries, including Kenya, several institutions that operationalise the justice sector are completely unable to abide by the rule of law principles owing to a multiplicity of factors which include – but are not limited to lack of exposure to specialised areas of law, inability to cope with the fast pace of domestic and global legal developments – owing to enactment of new legislations, and legislative instruments, ratification of new treaties and other human rights instruments and the burgeoning case law at the domestic as well as international level – lack of research resources, among others.

There is therefore an urgent need to build the capacity of such institutions so that they can be enabled to perform their roles effectively and efficiently. This is the gap that Legal Education Forum (LEF) intends to fill by rendering the undermentioned services to the agencies outlined hereunder.