City restaurant responds after claims of firing man who lost his baby

A city restaurant on Tuesday, June 11 came under criticism from Kenyan on social media after a man claimed that he was fired for attending to his pregnant wife on labor.

In a Facebook post on Sema Ukweli, the man only identified as Max, narrates how he received a call from on May 2 informing him that his wife had gone into labor and needed to be rushed to the hospital.

The wife, however, managed to take an uber and was okay till her condition worsened the following day and got transferred for a cesarean operation at the Pumwani Maternity.

When he asked for permission from his workplace to attend to the wife, Max says his request was declined. He later got a call that his wife lost the child as soon as she was born.

“He was urgently needed at the theatre to sign some hospital papers and the official death report. He requested permission to go to the hospital, but the CEO Ms Pamela Muyeshi declined his request. His immediate supervisor sympathised with him, however, and granted him leave on the condition that he put his request in writing. While he was away, he kept updating his employer on everything that was happening,” read part of the post.

Upon returning to work, Max was asked to write a report explaining how the baby died and how he got permission to leave work.

According to Max, the restaurant’s CEO asked to see the burial permit and certificate for the baby to show proof of death. Max’s manager was however asked to terminate his contract.

However, Amaica restaurant on Wednesday, June 12 issued a statement saying that they were not aware of Max’s alleged work termination.

“We wish to state, categorically, that as far as we are concerned, Maxwell is still our employee except that he has absconded from duty since May 8 2019. We also wish to state that we are aware that Maxwell lost a son and for that unfortunate event, he was allowed compassionate leave from work from May 3, 2019 to May 6, 2019,” read part of the statement.

Amaica also said they have instructed their lawyers to take action on the accusations made against their CEO and business citing that the publication on Sema Ukweli was ‘unverified and biased’.