Students from different Universities offering Law degree programs have petitioned the Parliament of Uganda to remove the monopoly of the Law Development Center in awarding the Diploma in Legal Practice.

The students want the government to permit more institutions private and government to conduct postgraduate bar course in legal practice that allows graduates of law to practice as lawyers.

LDC Director

Moses Byamugisha, the chairperson of the Uganda Christian University law society says the current monopoly enjoyed by LDC abuses the rights of students to attend the bar course and pass it, as the one institution increases entry screening and passing requirements to sieve as few of them as possible.

He says the Law Development Center was set up when only Makerere University was awarding Law degrees but several Universities have since been licensed to offer law courses and LDC is not adequate to handle all students from all universities who want to undertake the bar course.

The students are also demanding that LDC should stop the pre-entry exam that the students sit for before they are admitted, arguing that it is their right to attend the course having attended and passed the Law Degree in their different universities that are licensed by the National Council for Higher Education.

They argue that law schools are increasing in Uganda and yet LDC is limiting the number of entry for practicing certificates.

In their petition students say the pre-entry exam make vey many would be lawyers to miss, citing the recent intake where 300 out of 800 lawyers who sat for exam were admitted.

By Mugisa Isaac Mathias