Swiss Foundation Fined Sh6.7 Million For Employee Rights Violation

Employment tribunal rules against Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition in sexual harassment dismissal case

NAIROBI – A Swiss-based nutrition foundation has been ordered to pay Sh6.7 million in compensation to a former senior manager who was unfairly dismissed following sexual harassment allegations, a Kenyan employment tribunal ruled this week.

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) was found to have violated the employment rights of its former head of policy and advocacy, who was terminated in December 2024 after being accused of sexual misconduct by a female colleague.

Justice Byron Ongaya of the Employment and Labour Relations Court determined that the foundation relied on hearsay evidence and failed to follow proper disciplinary procedures in dismissing the employee.

Key Findings

The court heard that the alleged incident occurred in September 2024, but the victim never formally reported it. Instead, the allegations surfaced through witness testimony claiming the employee had made inappropriate comments to a female colleague.

According to court documents, the witness alleged that the male employee had made “sexy comments” and suggested the female colleague “couldn’t have missed him if she agreed to have children with him.”

However, the investigation revealed several procedural flaws:

• The alleged victim was not present during the disciplinary hearing
• The witness provided contradictory accounts of the incident
• The employee was denied the right to cross-examine complainants
• No coherent evidence was presented to support the allegations

Disciplinary Process Questioned

The dismissed employee, who had requested independent legal representation during the hearing, argued that the foundation’s human resources department declined his request for written statements to be submitted to the disciplinary panel.

Justice Ongaya noted that an outsider conducted the disciplinary hearing while GAIN’s representative was not allowed to comment on the allegations. The court found this process fundamentally flawed.

“The accounts narrated against the complainant were not coherent,” Justice Ongaya stated in his ruling. “There was no justifiable reason to dismiss the employee based on the evidence presented.”

Foundation’s Response

GAIN had initially suspended the employee for two weeks in October 2024, later extending this to four weeks. The foundation argued that the employee would not be impartial and therefore could not have his lawyer present during the disciplinary hearing.

However, the court rejected this reasoning, finding that the employer’s failure to ensure proper representation violated the employee’s rights to due process.

Compensation Awarded

The tribunal ordered GAIN to pay the former employee Sh6.7 million in compensation for unfair dismissal. The ruling emphasized that employers must follow proper disciplinary procedures, particularly in cases involving serious allegations such as sexual harassment.

The case highlights the importance of due process in workplace disciplinary actions and the need for employers to ensure that investigations are conducted fairly and transparently, even when dealing with sensitive allegations.