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The Nairobian

Swahili Village: Kenyan-owned restaurant in the US fights labour law violation claims

Business

By Brian Ngugi | Oct 15, 2023

**Swahili Village owner Kevin Onyona at the entrance to his fine-dining Kenyan restaurant in 2020.** [Courtesy: Swahili Village]

A popular Kenyan-owned restaurant in the United States (US) has denied allegations of underpaying employees in violation of labour laws governing operations at its Washington branch.

A plaintiff, through the District of Columbia (DC) Attorney General's Office, in August, accused Swahili Village of wage stealing by paying hundreds of its employees below the city's minimum rates.

The restaurant, founded and headed by a Kenyan, Kevin Onyona, operates three outlets, comprising a premiere eatery in Maryland and two others in Washington DC and New Jersey.

Swahili Village is popular with dignitaries and diplomats and hosted President William Ruto at its New Jersey outlet on September 17, during the president's weeklong visit to the US.

Mr Onyona, who serves as the chief executive, and Emad Shoeb, the chief operating officer, have mounted a defence against the accusations lodged by DC's Attorney General Brian Schwalb.

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The lawsuit alleges that the restaurant and its management have "persistently and systematically" failed to pay workers wages, tips and benefits. This, Schwalb argues, violates the "basic wage, overtime, sick leave, and record-keeping rules that all District employers are required to follow."

"Defendants admit that since the business's opening, Swahili Village DC has employed many servers, hosts, food runners, bussers, and bartenders," Onyona says through his lawyers.

"Defendants deny the remaining allegations."

The restaurant chain is also fighting allegations of pocketing workers' tips by demanding they turn them over and keeping a large portion or the entire amount.

It has also been accused of failure to provide overtime pay to employees when they worked more than 40 hours in a work week. Others include failure to provide employees with paid sick leave. Kevin Onyona and Shoeb have countered allegations that the high-end Swahili Village DC, also known as the Consulate, is a District corporation, stating that Swahili Village is a Maryland Limited liability company.

Swahili Village DC, the restaurant's outlet in Washington DC, started hiring staff in January 2020 ahead of opening in March of that year. Operations were, however, hit by the Covid and only started to recover in 2021.

Mr Onyona left Kenya in 1999 to visit his girlfriend in the US where he first worked as a salesperson before venturing into hospitality.

The Kenyan entrepreneur opened the first Swahili Village restaurant in the historic town of Beltsville, in Maryland in July 2016 before expanding into Washington DC and New Jersey.

"I am very proud as a Kenyan leader that you have come all the way, you have hustled your way into this great investment. We have come here to celebrate what you are doing," President Ruto said when he visited the restaurant's New Jersey outlet.

"It felt like we were in Nairobi in a flash because the food was so Kenyan that we really felt at home."