Clinic Units

The Strathmore Law Clinic dedicated to advancing access to justice and empowering communities through a range of specialized services. It operates through three core units, each tackling a specific area of legal need.

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Criminal Justice Unit

The Criminal Justice Unit is dedicated to advancing access to justice by addressing the insufficiencies and inefficiencies of the Kenyan criminal justice system by adopting sustainable approaches to criminal justice reforms.
The unit engages in the following projects:

Remand Project
Appeals Project
Criminal Handbook Project

The Remand project provides free legal services to remandees in Kenyan prisons. In partnership with the paralegal offices, clinicians assist remandees by drafting cross-examination questions, preparing submissions and providing structured legal feedback on ongoing cases through mock court trials.

The Appeals Project aims to assist prisoners who have been convicted in appealing their cases to the High Court and Court of Appeal. Clinicians support convicted persons in filing appeals by drafting necessary documents such as Notice of Appeal, Memorandum of Appeal and written submissions. These documents are prepared by clinicians and sent to inmates, who then file them independently within prison.

The Criminal Handbook Project entails drafting a simplified booklet on the elements of common criminal offences under the Penal Code, for example, assault and murder.

Entrepreneurship Unit

The Entrepreneurship Unit is committed to promoting access to justice by empowering entrepreneurs, mediators and small business actors with practical legal knowledge, guidance and support.

It is made up of the following projects:

Mediators Legal Awareness Project (MLAP)
Strathmore Entrepreneurship Legal Aid Clinic (SELC)
Street MBA Project
Digi Haki project

A team of student clinicians is paired with an advocate to develop practical legal solThe Mediators Legal Awareness Programme (M.L.A.P) is a capacity-building initiative designed for mediators that lack formal legal training. Through simplified and practical legal instruction, M.L.A.P equips mediators to identify legal issues arising in dispute, understand the legal implications of mediated outcomes and recognise matters that require referral to formal legal processes. The key areas covered include: Contract Law, Law of Torts, Land Law, Family Law and Succession Law.utions to issues raised by SME owners. The advice is delivered through clear, digestible letters, enabling entrepreneurs to take actionable steps without unnecessary complexity. While the clinic does not represent clients, it provides guidance in a simplified format that entrepreneurs can easily apply. We partner with various organizations to source clientele, most notably Sinapis, a well-regarded business incubator.

The Strathmore Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic (SELC) is a student-run legal support initiative for entrepreneurs facing legal challenges but cannot afford professional legal services. Clients are sourced through incubators, entrepreneurship hubs, and outreach initiatives. Thereafter, clinicians hold structured consultations to understand the legal challenge, and then legal advice is provided under the supervision of qualified advocates

The STREET MBA Project delivers practical business law education through interactive workshops. It aims to equip entrepreneurs with the tools to formalise, protect and confidently grow their businesses. Its core areas are business registration & formalisation, intellectual property protection and regulatory & compliance requirements. It also involves the continuous development of a Business Starter Pack Manual, which explains essential aspects of business law in clear, simplified language.

DiGi Haki is a student-led fintech legal education initiative under SELC that aims to strengthen legal awareness among fintech entrepreneurs, promote regulatory compliance within the Payment Service Provider ecosystem and bridge the gap between innovation and legal practice through structured training, resources and partnerships.

A. Regulatory Compliance

This project is designed to equip small and medium-sized entrepreneurs with the essential legal knowledge required to ensure they operate within the law. It also prepares businesses with foundational insights needed to confidently venture into entrepreneurship and maintain compliance in their day-to-day operations. The project is delivered through the following initiatives:

Human Rights

This unit seeks to promote and raise public awareness about human rights. It is made up of the following projects:

Red Ribbon project
Nuru ya Akina Dada Legal Aid (NALA) project
Persons with Disabilities project.
Jitambue Kisheria project
Wings of Hope Project

This project aims to close that gap by empowering clinicians (student advocates) to provide supervised, structured, and high-quality representation to People Living with HIV before the Tribunal. It builds upon the Clinic’s ongoing collaboration with the HIV & AIDS Tribunal and the Tribunal Users Committee.

The Nuru ya Akina dada Legal Aid(NALA) project is dedicated to empowering vulnerable girls' groups by equipping them with essential legal knowledge, with a particular emphasis on human rights. In partnership with Kamae Borstal Institution and Maisha Foundation, the project conducts educational sessions to raise awareness about legal rights and protections.

 

 This initiative aims to foster confidence and enable vulnerable girls to advocate for themselves within their communities.

This project is dedicated to spreading awareness of the rights of persons with disabilities through workshops and sensitising the public about persons with disabilities.  It does this through simplified handbooks on the Persons with Disabilities Act 2025 in both English and Kiswahili, workshops, and capacity-building sessions at Orione Community Training Centre.

The Wings of Hope Project is the result of a strategic alliance between the Strathmore Law Clinic and the Wings of Hope Rescue Centre in Kamulu. This project aims to provide support to the teenage girls aged 12-17 and their children.

The Jitambue Kisheria Project is a dynamic initiative dedicated to engaging with students in public primary and secondary schools and social justice centres. The project members deliver talks to children aged 11-17  on carefully selected and pertinent human rights topics guided by Chapter 4 of the Constitution of Kenya.

Supporting Wings

The Clinic has supporting wings that act as an anchor for the units.

COMMUNICATION WING

The main objective of the Communication Wing is to raise more awareness of the Clinic’s achievements through its three hubs: the Catalyst Hub, Design and Content Creation Hub and Social Media and Marketing Hub.

The Catalyst Hub handles the publication of quarterly newsletters, blogs and magazines that seek to educate the public on the achievements of the clinic. 

The Design and Content Creation Hub is responsible for developing the Clinic’s visual communication materials, including posters, handbooks, and magazines, as well as curating content for the Law Clinic’s Instagram page.

The Social Media and Marketing Hub aims to use social media platforms to build the law clinic’s visibility, create awareness about the clinic’s goal to provide access to justice and interact with the audience.

RESEARCH WING

The main objective of the Research Wing is to support all research activities within the Clinic by ensuring that the Clinic produces high-quality research through its projects: the Data Collection Project and the Legal Digest.

The data collection project mainly focuses on collecting community and clinician data during the legal aid caravan. The project is essential because it converts clinic interactions into evidence, enabling informed law reform research, impact assessment and institutional learning and memory, while grounding legal education and advocacy in the lived realities of the communities the clinic serves.

The Legal Digest is a student-led publication that breaks down the law into clear, practical, and engaging content. Each edition explains a key law, analyses a recent case, answers real legal questions, and includes a simple “how to” guide for everyday legal issues. The goal is simple: make the law understandable and useful.

The Legal Aid Caravan is an outreach initiative led by the Strathmore Law Clinic, dedicated to promoting access to justice, legal education on constitutional rights and outreach to vulnerable communities. From 2023, the Law Clinic has travelled to Samburu, Isiolo and Narok counties.

During the caravan, our clinicians, together with the advocates, carry out barazas where community members are interviewed to understand their legal disputes. Thereafter, the advocates take up pressing cases.