Relief for KPA as court dismisses petition against planned port hiring
The Mombasa Port. The Employment and Labour Relations Court dismissed a petition that sought to restrain the Kenya Ports Authority from discriminating against members of the Mijikenda community in its recruitment of 200 dock workers.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court has dismissed a petition that sought to restrain the Kenya Ports Authority from discriminating against members of the Mijikenda community in its recruitment of 200 dock workers.
Justice Agnes Nzei ruled that the Taireni Association of Mijikenda, the petitioner, had not proved any acts of discrimination by KPA in the hiring that started with a job advertisement published on November 23 last year.
“In the present case, the petitioner failed to make out a case against the respondent (KPA),” said Justice Nzei.
The judge also said the association had not demonstrated that KPA engaged in irrational and arbitrary conduct that could be said to amount to discrimination against the community’s members.
Justice Nzei added that the association itself had admitted that members of the Mijikenda community were the majority in KPA’s workforce.
She noted that the conditions for selection or employment as set out in the advert did not contain any discriminatory clauses or undertones.
“The petitioner filed the petition on December 29, 2021 before the selection process commenced, and did not tell this court whether any of its qualified members had submitted applications for the advertised positions, had been discriminated against and denied employment,” Justice Nzei said.
She added that the petitioner’s allegations that young members of the community were excluded from KPA jobs were not substantiated.
The association had asked the court to rule that KPA’s recruitment criteria were illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional.
It also wanted the court to permanently restrain KPA from discriminating against the Mijikenda community in its hiring.
The association claimed that the previous selection and induction process had discriminated against the community’s members.
It also argued that the hiring had failed to take into account regional balance.
For its part, KPA opposed the petition, saying no document had been filed to substantiate allegations of discrimination and that the claims were based on conjuncture and speculation.
KPA also argued that although it had advertised the position of dock worker and received applications from interested individuals, it had not started the selection process when the petition was filed.
This, it said, meant that the allegations of discrimination were speculative and ill-informed.
It said the association had failed to demonstrate specific violations of rights and instead made speculative allegations against a selection process that had not even started.
KPA also argued that members of the association did not constitute a marginalised group as defined by the Constitution, because as the group admitted, the Mijikenda make up a majority of KPA’s workforce, at 35.38 percent.
