A Kenyan Employment and Labour Relations Court docket has ordered neobank Umba to pay KES 2.88 million ($21,600) in damages and authorized prices for unfairly terminating former govt Alice Anyango Oduor, underscoring authorized expectations for startups navigating employment legal guidelines within the East African nation.
The March 28 ruling discovered that Umba— which operates in Kenya and Nigeria—violated due course of when it terminated Oduor’s contract in January 2023 throughout her six-month probation interval. Oduor, who served as the corporate’s head of progress, was dismissed after only a few months within the function, allegedly for poor efficiency and incapacity to fulfill targets.
In line with court docket paperwork seen by TechCabal, Oduor claimed that no clear targets have been set and that her efficiency was not formally evaluated. Oduor claimed she was dismissed through a WhatsApp name from the corporate’s CFO, with out a formal assembly or written discover.
Umba, by means of its legal professionals, argued that it knowledgeable Oduor of her efficiency expectations and held a number of conferences to assist her perceive her job, together with a December 20, 2022, assembly with the CFO. The corporate added that her termination resulted from efficiency points, and knowledgeable her of the supposed termination.
Nonetheless, the court docket decided that Umba failed to offer enough documentation to justify the dismissal and didn’t permit Oduor to reply to the allegations—an omission that rendered the termination illegal, regardless that she was on probation.
“The Respondent has not proved that it performed a efficiency analysis in opposition to the Claimant’s targets over a specified time frame previous to concluding that her efficiency was not as per its expectations, therefore rendering her unfit for the corporate,” stated Decide Stella Rutto, who presided over the case.
The $21,600 compensation covers the equal of Oduor’s three months’ wage throughout her quick stint on the firm. The court docket additionally ordered Umba to difficulty a Certificates of Service inside 30 days and to cowl all authorized prices.
Umba didn’t instantly reply to a request for feedback.
Underneath Kenya’s Employment Act, staff on probation are nonetheless entitled to truthful procedural therapy earlier than termination, together with being knowledgeable of efficiency issues and being given an opportunity to reply. The court docket famous that probationary standing doesn’t exempt employers from these authorized obligations.
