FOUNDATION DAY LECTURE BY FRANCIS BEN KAIFALA ESQ., THE COMMISSIONER OF THE ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE AT THE SIERRA LEONE LAW SCHOOL TO MARK THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SCHOOL’S ACADEMIC YEAR ON THE TOPIC:

“KPANA BEFORE THE GATEKEEPERS: DISMANTLING THE DESIGNED ROADBLOCKS TO ACCESSING THE LAW BY THE ORDINARY MAN”

This is not your everyday lecture on the law as Francis Ben Kaifala took the opportunity, at the beginning of the academic year of the Sierra Leone Law School 2020, to open students' minds to “think the law” not just be taught what it is.

He, for the purposes of this lecture, uses the Common Sierra Leonean name, Kpana, to depict “the common man” who seeks the law. Seeking the law has many meanings. It could be seeking justice. It could be seeking to know what the law really is. It could mean wanting to be a lawyer. It could mean understanding the law. It could mean life. Either way, do we really understand what the law is; and can the ordinary man at any time access the law which we fondly call “a biscuit”? Why should the law, which has as one of its key features, “predictability” be a biscuit at all? Why for the 8000 plus years of human existence the law has always been with us, yet we seek it every day and never know what the outcome of particular cases would be until a judge pronounces it to be so? What is the use of the normative aspects of the law if we cannot say what it is unless judicial pronouncement confirms it to be so? Why is that which is supposed to bring about social order and human happiness be so convoluted and mostly deliberately shrouded in mystery? Why do we need judges to tell us what the law is if we have to study it for years first? What really is in fact the law? Is it what is in the books or what judges say they are or can be anything?

What is the purpose of reading the law to become lawyers and judges if the legal system is not available to the ordinary citizen and there are "gatekeepers" to ensure it at various levels. What can we do about this since we are trained to do justice – because it is said, the law is the means; justice is the end! Why is the "means" not even easily accessible before we can talk about getting the "end".

This lecture tis not to teach the law but is about the law. It questions and shakes the very foundation upon which English Law Teaching stands and opens the students' minds to think the law. It is unconventional and radical but highly intellectual.The best you will find in Africa!

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