Teacher wins lawsuit against school that sacked him for sending porn to senior staff members

 Kenya's Employment and Labour Relations court has ruled in favour of a teacher who was sacked by Riara Group of Schools, for emailing pornographic content to senior members of staff on two occasions.

Apollo Amanya who was hired on June 10, 2019, was sacked on March 18, 2021, for sharing nude pictures in breach of the school?s e-learning policy. He filed a lawsuit against the school for unfair dismissal.

During the trial, the school told the court that Amanya had between February 24 and 25, 2021, sent unsolicited pornographic materials to several senior members of staff.

According to the school, sharing of pornographic content was in contravention of its e-learning guidelines which Amanya was aware of.

However, defending himself in court, Amanya disclosed that his email was hacked and he reported the matter to the police after he learned of the intrusion. He further revealed that despite changing the password, another set of images was circulated from the same email account on February 26, 2021.

The teacher said the offensive images were transmitted through his email account from the ICT lab. Amanya further noted that he was in class and someone other than him must have been behind the circulation of the images. 

The teacher reported the intrusion into his account on March 19, 2021, a day after he was taken through the school?s disciplinary process and sacked. 

Ruling on the case Justice Bernard Manani stated that though the teacher was culpable of circulating obscene images, the process of dismissing him was unfair.

Manani said the defendant ought to have accorded the teacher a fair hearing before dismissing him from his job. He added that though the school had a valid reason to terminate Amanya?s contract of employment, the school failed to convince the court that it upheld the requirements of due process in terminating his job.

Manani awarded the teacher Ksh110,000; an amount equivalent to his salary for two months as compensation for wrongful termination. The compensation was on account of failure to accord him a fair hearing notwithstanding his apparent transgressions