According to court papers, the female lawyer also used to refer to her colleague as “boy lollipop”.
A female lawyer fired from a civil society group for calling her junior male staff nicknames that the employer considered to be sexual harassment has been awarded Sh1.5 million by the Labour Relations court following a finding that the dismissal was unfair.
Justice Byram Ongaya also found that the man, codenamed Mr SR, seemed to enjoy the nicknames as he never complained for more than one year, and the same was inscribed on his birthday party cake by his colleagues without protest.
The woman, codenamed Ms VA to protect her dignity, was sacked from Kituo Cha Sheria-Legal Advice Centre in November 2022 after the male employee complained of sexual harassment for being called "baby boy" and at times "lollipop" repeatedly at the workplace.
She sued the organization and its former Executive Director, Dr Annette Mbogoh, contending that there was no proof of the alleged harassment and the organization's board of directors failed to consider all her evidence against the allegations.
Justice Ongaya ruled that the termination of employment was unlawful and unfair since Ms VA was not accorded a chance to explain herself and no conclusive investigation report was submitted by an ad hoc committee as required by the NGO's internal complaints procedure.
The court found that it was procedurally wrong for the complaint to be referred to the Board of Directors instead of the performance management committee.
"The termination was blended with malice manifested in disregard of the grievance procedure by the Performance Committee and the procedure on conclusive investigation of sexual harassment complaints by the ad hoc committee.
The sexual harassment policy specifically prohibited making malicious sexual harassment claims," said Justice Ongaya on Friday, sitting at the Employment and Labour Relations court in Nairobi.
He added that the allegations were malicious, unfounded, and never occurred, and if they occurred, then Mr SR welcomed them in view of his consistent failure to report for a period of over one year and five months.
Other staff members used the 'offensive' nicknames, including on WhatsApp messages and his birthday cake, and he never complained.
The judge noted that the victim testified confirming that the use of the nicknames "baby boy", "lollipop", and "baby boy lollipop" had started right from the date of his appointment, and he lodged the complaint close to one-and-a-half years later against Ms VR.
"The evidence was that other staff members had also used the nicknames like on the WhatsApp screen shots where another employee had used it, and the exchange of the messages did not receive Mr SR's protestation. Similarly, on another day, the nickname had been used by staff collectively on Mr SR's birthday cake, and that shows he had for over a long time become used to his colleagues using the nicknames.
In the absence of any other material, the court finds that he condoned the use of the nicknames by his workmates, including the petitioner, and the alleged sexual harassment was unfounded," said the judge. The organization had said Ms VA nicknamed the man without his consent.
Ms VA's advocates, Seko Minayo and Company Advocates LLP, also stated that the organisation treated her in a degrading manner by sharing her termination letter with staff and other employees.
The court concurred with the advocates that it was questionable how Ms VA suddenly became a villain that warranted a joint complaint from five of her juniors in April 2022.
The junior staff complained that her management style was characterised by micromanaging of staff, favouritism, and lack of collegiality. She was also accused of breaching the chain of command by giving staff contradictory instructions contrary to the directions of the office of executive director and bringing the organization to disrepute with its partners by undertaking unilateral decisions.
"The Executive Director confirmed that throughout her prior service with the organization and until the complaints were made, Ms VA had not been issued with a warning and she had a clean record of service," observed the judge.
Ms VA joined the NGO in 2015 as a volunteer, got hired in February 2016 as Program Officer, and rose to the rank of Coordinator-Advocacy, Governance and Community Partnership (AGCP) Program in January 2019 before being fired on November 11, 2022.
"The court finds that with such a clean record of service and without prior individual or collective complaints by the employees at the time or about the time the alleged complaints happened, it was suspected that a collective complaint was signed and then the Performance Management Committee denied the chance not to undertake its role. It was unfair, and the court finds accordingly," said the judge.
Stating that Ms VA suffered a serious anxiety and reputational injury as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya, the judge directed Kituo Cha Sheria to pay her Sh1.5 million by July 1, 2025, being compensation for a one-year salary.
He declared that the organization breached her rights and fundamental freedoms and that there was no reasonable cause to terminate her employment.
In defence, the organisation had stated that it ensured integrity and fairness in the process leading to the termination following "serious allegations of breach of workplace policy".
It said the basis of the termination was anonymous complaints received from the Advocacy Governance and Community Partnerships (AGCP) program team.
"The reasons for termination were valid and lawful since they were informed by the board committee, where all parties were heard, and which established that Ms VA was involved in sexual harassment of an employee with whom she had supervisory control. Ms VA was terminated was not as a result of her gender and tribe," the court heard.
The organisation added that the issue of sexual harassment was not based on one incident only; it included harassment of another female employee, and other electronic evidence in the form of screenshots was provided to the committee.
