After four months of gruelling campaigns, about 20,000 lawyers across the country are expected to vote this morning to elect their next leader in the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) polls.

The election would be a big battle to replace outgoing LSK President Eric Theuri, who had won the hearts of many Kenyans for winning public interest cases on taxes and expansion of Executive.

Today’s polls will see lawyers elect a new council to replace the current team whose term comes to an end next month.

Theuri, who became the 50th LSK President, took over from Nelson Havi in March 2022. This was after Havi was kicked out of office by a group of branch chairpersons before the end of his term because of leadership wrangles.

Faith Odhiambo, Theuri’s deputy, is running to replace him. She is battling for the seat with LSK former vice-president Caroline Kamende as well as current council member Njoki Mboce, former council member Bernard Ng’etich and city lawyer Peter Wanyama.

Besides the seat of presidency and vice, other seats up for grabs are the council membership and regional representatives at the national council. Also to be conducted today is the vote for the male representative to the powerful Judicial Service Commission (JSC). This comes as the term of incumbent representative Macharia Njeru is expiring in May.

Theuri is seeking to replace Njeru, and he is fighting it out with Omwanza Ombati. The outspoken Ombati is keen to change the set-up of operations at JSC with focus on more openness and development of the practice of law.

Young advocates

The elections will be overseen by Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). Those eligible to take part in the elections are lawyers with valid practice certificates.

Chief Justice Martha Koome has admitted in excess of 2,500 young advocates to the bar this year alone, making them a potent voting bloc that will no doubt tilt the scale.

The outgoing LSK President stated that elections for all the seats including the JSC representative will be conducted together to make it cost effective and convenient for advocates.

All candidates have been traversing the country across the regions including Mombasa, Meru, Kisii, Nakuru meeting the lawyers to ask for their vote.