Kenyan court orders Twiga Foods to pay ex-employee $7,800 for unfair dismissal

Twiga Foods, a Kenyan B2B startup, has been ordered to pay a former sales representative over KES 1 million ($7,800) after the Employment and Labour Relations Court found that his dismissal was unfair.

In a judgment delivered virtually on October 9, Justice Linnet Ndolo ruled that Twiga wrongfully fired Maxton Duke Kibira in December 2018, after accusing him of “poor performance” without providing evidence to back it up. The court said the company neither gave Kibira a clear job description nor followed due process before terminating his employment.

The judgment adds to a string of recent labour disputes that are forcing Kenya’s tech startups to take workplace rights more seriously. In April, the court ordered neobank Umba to pay KES 2.88 million ($22,300) for unfairly dismissing an executive after failing to document performance targets. That same month, judges faulted Dawa Life Sciences for paying different salaries for the same role, a decision that sent ripples through tech startups with opaque pay structures.

Kibira, who joined Twiga in 2015, earning approximately KES 100,000 ($774) monthly, told the court that he had been subjected to unrealistic sales targets, forced overtime, and constant transfers between stations. He also claimed that Twiga unlawfully deducted KES 426,000 ($3,298) from his salary, allegedly for unbanked cash, calling it a “surcharge” for which he was never given a chance to dispute.

“The respondent’s witness was unable to point out any proof of poor performance,” the judge noted, adding that the company’s deductions from Kibira’s salary were “unilateral” and breached labour law procedures. She also faulted Twiga for punishing him twice for the same issue, by docking his pay and then firing him.

Twiga argued that Kibira had consistently underperformed despite several warnings and that the deductions were linked to bonuses he hadn’t earned. However, Justice Ndolo said that the company failed to provide any evidence of poor performance or to demonstrate that Kibira had been given support to improve.

The court awarded Kibira six months’ salary as compensation, plus a refund of the irregular deductions, amounting to a total of KES 1.026 million ($7,800), with interest.