Kenya police officer sacked for visiting sick wife gets reprieve

Employement and Labour Relations Court Judge Justice Nduma Nderi. [Photo: File]

NAIROBI: A General Service Unit officer, Charles Kinanga, who was sacked for leaving his station to attend to his sick wife has been reinstated.

The court ruled that the officer was already going through turmoil and that his seniors abused employment powers by requiring him to be at work at that time.

It all started on December 6, 2004, when his brother relayed the news that his pregnant wife had been rushed to hospital after falling sick.

The officer sought permission to leave from his immediate superior with whom he was on duty at the US Embassy in Gigiri, Nairobi, and rushed to the hospital.

His boss was not opposed to him leaving the station but when he reported back to the office, he was ordered to explain why he had left his station after which he was dismissed.

The corporal appealed against his dismissal but received a letter on March 15, 2013, from the National Police Service Commission saying his appeal was unsuccessful.

It was a double blow for Mr Kinanga as his child died at the same time that he lost his job.

GROSS ABUSE

“The petitioner (Kinanga) has, as a result, suffered gross abuse and injustice at the hands of his employer emanating from a family tragedy, which resulted in the death of his child.

“It is the court’s considered view that a society that operates in total disregard to basic tenets of humanity; a community that completely lacks empathy for a fellow human being in the face of personal calamity and loss cannot be successful in its basic objectives that depend on the very humanity to succeed,” Justice Nduma Nderi said in his ruling.

The judge noted that Kinanga was left in limbo for nine years awaiting the appeal’s verdict, noting that this was agonising. The court ruled that work was not as important as the suffering of an individual.

“There is no nature of employment or task that is so superior to the pain of a parent that has just lost a child as to subject such a parent to serve and not be allowed to attend to the loss of his child and sickness of his wife,” the court ruled.

Justice Nderi ordered that the officer should be reinstated within a month and that he should retain his pay and benefits as a corporal.