LawAfrica
was founded in 1999 to fill the gap in legal publishing
in East Africa.
It began when Katarina Juma noticed
the difficulty that existed in getting materials of
any court rulings. While at the university in the US
she was assigned on a project with another Kenyan student
who had also experienced the same difficulty. She noticed
that it was very easy to get rulings for American courts
in computer form, and she thought of creating a business
using the same concept.
On coming back to Kenya Katarina teamed
up with Maina Waweru and while both were still working
at full-time jobs, they started the company that would
eventually become LawAfrica. At first the business was
subscription based and had problems generating enough
revenue because the on-line product was not ready; the
website developer could not develop the site on time.
LawAfrica concluded a strategic joint
venture partnership with an international publisher,
LexisNexis Butterworths, in order to ensure that the
markets in which we operate are serviced properly and
that there is transfer of skills to LawAfrica.
The joint venture's first product was
the East Africa Law Reports (EALR) 1995 - 2003.
Brief History
of Law Reporting in East Africa
The first law reports
were contained in what was known as the East Africa
Law Reports (EALR).
The EALR was first published in 1897
by the Hon Mr. Justice R. W. Hamilton, who was then
the Chief Justice of the East Africa Protectorate.
When these reports were reintroduced
in 1957 they covered decisions of the Court of Appeal
for East Africa and the superior courts of the constituent
territories, namely, Kenya , Uganda , Tanzania , Aden
, Seychelles and Somaliland . They were published under
an editorial board consisting of the Chief Justices
of the Territories and the presiding judge of the Court
of Appeal for Eastern Africa . Following the collapse
of the East African Community, under whose auspices
the reports were published, the reports went out of
publication until LawAfrica came along.
Today, LawAfrica is still the only
legal publishing company in East Africa .
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