Relief group World Vision Kenya and its former driver are embroiled in a court tussle over the organisation’s policy that regulates the employees’ love relationships.
Relief group World Vision Kenya and its former driver are embroiled in a court tussle over the organisation’s policy that regulates the employees’ love relationships.
Mr Dominic Mulavu says the organisation’s policy manual on Child and Adult Safeguarding is unconstitutional “as it criminalises consensual relationships between the staff and adult members of the community”.
In a petition that is pending determination at the Employment and Labour Relations Court, Mr Mulavu accuses the organisation of meddling with his private life and love affairs with a businesswoman in Kitui County leading to his dismissal from work in May 2024.
“The policy on Child and Adult Safeguarding has a broad definition on beneficiaries of the World Vision Kenya’s programme such that it makes it a violation for staff to engage in relationships not only with colleagues but even members of the public,” says Mr Mulavu through his lawyer Oscar Onyango.
The lawyer states: “The policy manual undermines the employees’ right to find spouses and by extension contravenes Article 45(2) of the Constitution which provides that every adult has the right to marry a person of the opposite sex based on the free consent of the parties”.
He wants the court to declare that the policy is unconstitutional. The intended purpose of the disputed policy was to protect the beneficiaries of the organisation from any form of exploitation.
Mr Mulavu worked as a driver for the global organisation for 12 years from 2012 to May 2024, when his employment was terminated over allegations of engaging in a romantic relationship with a community member in Mutomo, Kitui County.
He says while working at the Mutha Mutomo area in Kitui County in October 2022, he fell in love with a businesswoman named Mercy Kailu, and a romantic relationship intended for marriage developed between them.
The consensual relationship went on for two years but it broke down and ended in November 2023, shortly before his transfer to the Kitise AP area in Makueni County for his new assignment.
“Since he was no longer in a relationship with the lady, he was under no obligation to inform her of his transfer to Kitise AP from Mutomo. He therefore proceeded to commence his new assignment without contacting her. Having lost contact with the lady, he was informed by a former colleague at Mutomo that the woman had visited the office enquiring on his whereabouts,” lawyer Onyango narrates in the court papers.
He states that in April 2024 Mr Mulavu received a show cause letter asking him to respond to allegations of “engaging in a sexual relationship with an adult community member in Mutomo”.
“Mercy was a business lady at Mutomo and was not a beneficiary of World Vision Kenya directly or indirectly. Furthermore, the World Vision Kenya policy relied upon in terminating Mr Mulavu’s employment does not speak to the nature of the harm that the relationship brought to the lady in question or the organisation itself,” says lawyer Onyango.
He adds that Mr Mulavu was not informed whether the woman had lodged a complaint on sexual harassment, exploitation, or harm occasioned by the relationship.
In the court papers, the lawyer contends that the organisation went out of its way to fish for reasons to sack him and in the process violated his right to privacy, human dignity, and the association between consenting adults.
He is seeking damages of Sh6 million for the alleged unlawful termination and breach and violation of his Constitutional rights.
On the alleged violation of his rights, Mr Mulavu says that he was compelled by the organisation to divulge personal information touching on his intimate relationship with the woman, which was ‘not only embarrassing but also degrading and intrusive’.
With the organisation’s presence in the entire country, he argues that “it would mean that the staff working for World Vision Kenya would have to resign or retire from employment before they can engage in any romantic relationship”.
The case is pending determination at the Employment and Labour Relations Court Machakos and is scheduled for mention on February 28, 2025.
