Woman Fired for Calling Male Colleague ‘Baby Boy’ Wins KSh 1.5 Million for Unfair Dismissal

• A Nairobi court awarded KSh 1.5 million to a female lawyer who was fired over sexual harassment claims, saying her dismissal was unfair and violated proper procedures
• The judge found that the male colleague seemed to accept the nicknames, even when they were used in office chats and written on his birthday cake
• The woman's employer, Kituo Cha Sheria, was criticised for skipping internal disciplinary steps and denying the lawyer a fair chance to defend herself

TUKO.co.ke journalist Ivan Mboto has over three years of experience reporting on politics and current affairs in Kenya

What began as playful office banter turned into a high-stakes legal battle, ending in a KSh 1.5 million compensation for a female lawyer.

The lawyer, identified in court documents as Ms VA,was dismissed over allegations of workplace sexual harassment.

The Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi awarded her the amount after finding her dismissal by civil society group Kituo Cha Sheria – Legal Advice Centre to be unlawful and procedurally flawed.

Why was the female lawyer dismissed?

The case revolved around claims made by a junior male colleague, referred to as Mr SR, who accused Ms VA of calling him nicknames such as “baby boy” and “lollipop”, remarks he claimed amounted to sexual harassment.

The incident led to her termination in November 2022.

However, Justice Byram Ongaya ruled that the allegations were either fabricated or welcomed by the complainant, noting that Mr SR never protested the nicknames for over 18 months.

The same nicknames were even displayed on his birthday cake, prepared by colleagues, and used in casual WhatsApp conversations—again, with no complaint from him.

“The allegations were malicious, unfounded, and did not occur. And if they did, Mr SR tolerated them, given his prolonged failure to raise any objection,” the judge observed.

The court found that Kituo Cha Sheria had not only denied Ms VA the right to defend herself but also failed to submit a conclusive report from the ad hoc committee formed to investigate the allegations.

This, Justice Ongaya noted, violated the organisation's own sexual harassment and grievance procedures.

He further faulted the process, stating that the matter was wrongly escalated to the board of directors instead of being handled by the performance management committee, which is responsible for such internal complaints.

“The termination was infused with malice, manifested in the disregard for the grievance procedure by the Performance Committee and the protocol for conducting a thorough investigation,” the judge stated.

He added that the organisation’s sexual harassment policy explicitly prohibits making malicious or baseless claims.

In court documents seen by TUKO.co.ke, Ms VA, through her lawyers Seko Minayo and Company Advocates LLP, argued that she was treated in a degrading manner, especially after her termination letter was circulated among staff.

The court agreed, noting that the circumstances under which she became the target of a collective complaint from five subordinates in April 2022 appeared suspicious.

According to the complaint, Ms VA was accused of micromanaging staff, showing favouritism, breaching the chain of command, and acting unilaterally in ways that reportedly harmed the organisation's reputation.

Yet, the executive director admitted in court that Ms VA had never previously received a warning or disciplinary notice and had maintained a clean employment record throughout her tenure.

Ms VA began working with the NGO as a volunteer in 2015. She was formally hired in February 2016 as a programme officer and later rose to the position of coordinator for the Advocacy, Governance and Community Partnership (AGCP) programme in January 2019.

Nairobi woman awarded KSh 1.5 million

Justice Ongaya noted that with such a track record, the sudden emergence of a joint complaint, without prior individual grievances, was suspect.

He ruled that denying the performance management committee the opportunity to investigate made the dismissal both unfair and unprocedural.

Citing emotional distress and reputational damage suffered by Ms VA, a practising advocate of the High Court of Kenya, the judge ordered Kituo Cha Sheria to compensate her with KSh1.5 million by July 1, the equivalent of a year’s salary.

The court further declared that the organisation had violated her rights and that there was no valid reason to terminate her employment.

Kituo Cha Sheria response

In its defence, Kituo Cha Sheria argued that the dismissal followed due process and was prompted by serious breaches of workplace policy.

The organisation claimed the decision was based on anonymous complaints from the AGCP team and was not influenced by Ms VA’s gender or ethnicity.

It also maintained that the alleged harassment involved more than just one incident and extended to another female staff member. It said electronic evidence, including WhatsApp screenshots, was presented during internal deliberations.

Safaricom ordered to compensate ex-employee for unfair sacking

In a related story, the Employment and Labour Relations Court ruled that Safaricom must pay KSh 1.1 million to a former employee, Christine Mwikali Kitheka, for unlawfully terminating her contract.

Justice Linnet Ndolo found that Mwikali had been unfairly dismissed after suffering a work-related ear, nose, and throat condition.

Mwikali, who worked as a customer care representative at Safaricom's call centre, developed health complications allegedly caused by prolonged use of headsets.

In her ruling, Justice Ndolo awarded Mwikali 12 months’ salary as compensation, amounting to KSh 1,103,545.

Proofreading by Asher Omondi, copy editor at TUKO.co.ke.

Source: TUKO.co.ke