20 Years and 20 Stories | Wambui Kabage

“What has really endeared me to Osgoode is the recognition that there are people who are not in a position to constantly be in an academic environment, but are committed to continuing their education.”

My background is as a British, Kenyan and Australian-trained lawyer. I have been an advocate of the High Court of Kenya for the last 15 years. My husband is a Canadian, and we were living in Kenya, but decided that it was better for him to come home. I closed my active practice in Kenya, and moved to Canada with our four children. 

Canada represented very many things. First of all, it was a new beginning, a completely different environment, and I needed to figure out a balance between advancing in my career as well as prioritizing my family. I had been previously looking at advancing myself in the area of litigation, which is pretty much what I do. I’m a trial lawyer and I go to court, and in that strain, I decided to look at what the Canadian environment offered. I had actually started this journey a long time ago, because as you can imagine, immigrating to another country is not a decision that one makes overnight. We deliberated over this decision for a period of about two years.

When I came to Osgoode, I found that they were at the cutting-edge of everything that they did, and that was reflected in the curriculum, in the professors, and all the course materials. I attended a lecture in Transnational Litigation, taught by Professor Janet Walker, an expert in the area. She has notably been quoted in the Supreme Court of Canada as an authority. This to me was fantastic, because at the end of the day, the only determinant that a legal expert is at the pinnacle of knowledge is when they are authoritatively acknowledged and then referred to by the highest court of the lands. My Professor was not just talking the talk, she was and is walking the talk and that was something extremely powerful to me.

I’ve always had aspirations to advance my knowledge in litigation and to contribute to the existing body of writing regarding the Kenyan trial process, believe that Osgoode will help me advance in my practice and academic aspirations because it is at the cutting-edge of legal knowledge. We learn what’s happening on the ground. That is the information being delivered to the classroom. It is not just abstract theories. What you see and what you read is what is actually being applied in practice.

At Osgoode, you will work, but you will be able to meet your academic commitments within the environment that you have. I have found that as a mother and wife, it has been a do-able course. This is really important because many people do not continue their education because that flexibility doesn’t exist. Osgoode has uniquely been able to create the kind of environment that is conducive to balancing a number of responsibilities. I am very grateful for the opportunity to study at this world class institution.