Where Are Our Graduates?

We get this question quite a bit — Where are our graduates?

Thank you for your interest in the progress of the programme. It motivates us. We are highlighting 4 graduates of the programme, one each month, to answer some of the most recurring questions you ask us. What are the graduates of the programme up to? Are they still in Public Interest Litigation? What became of their projects? Let’s find out!

To start off the #WhereAreOurGraduates series, we have Reverend Father Felix Ndolo from Cohort 1 of the training programme. Rev. Fr. Felix currently serves as a Legal Officer to the Catholic Church in Kenya.

“I must say that the programme defined and groomed me as a better advocate/litigator. Today as I serve as the Legal Officer to the Catholic Church in Kenya, I count my East Africa Emerging Public Interest Advocates Programme training among the top qualifications that earned me the job and title I hold.”

Rev. Fr. Felix’s project for the programme was on Discrimination against women and girls in the Land Adjudication Process in Loita-Narok County.

Before his intervention, the process for land adjudication was being handled by the State Department and male-dominated Land Adjudication Committees. This made some sections of the community apprehensive of their rights with regards to decision making and land ownership, for instance in the case of women, girls and widows. A majority of the men folk who were the only ones welcomed to attend public barazas, unanimously agreed on retrogressive by-laws that only provided for all men and boys to be allocated parcels of land, whereas women and girls were left out in the process. This problem was compounded by failure of the state to appoint women in the decision making organs such as Land Adjudication Committees. As a result, there was increased poverty on this section of the population (women) that entirely depended on land for their livelihood.

Following the legal requirement to exhaust all the locally available remedies before filing a matter in court, Rev. Fr. Felix approached the Land Adjudication Committee, the Land Adjudication Officer and the National Land Commission to have the process adhered to in accordance with the law. There were a series of meetings and finally through Rev. Fr. Felix’s intervention, the Land Adjudication Committee was disbanded and reconstituted with male and female representation. Further to that, land demarcation process was done throughout Loita-Narok without any discrimination and women and girls became happy beneficiaries of the spirited fight as they now enjoy the right to ownership of land/property as guaranteed in the Kenyan constitution, among other laws.

In his present-day role, Rev. Fr. Felix continues to serve his community while working on other public interest law projects.

Thank you and may God bless you Rev. Fr. Felix. Because of stories like yours, we are inspired to keep the programme going!