The High Court has ordered the Nation Media Group Ltd to pay former Coast based journalist Ksh347,000 for unfair and unlawful termination of employment.
Employment and Labour Relations Court Judge Monica Mbaru sitting in Malindi said the appeal by Charles Lwanga, is successful and has merit, and ordered the giant media house to pay for the costs of the suit.
The judge further directed Nation Media Group to compensate Ksh261,000 to the former reporter who currently works with the National Government as an Assistant County Commissioner (ACC), Ksh43,000 for dismissal without notice and another Ksh43,000 for leave allowance.
“The appellant was an employee of the respondent; A declaration is hereby issued that employment was terminated unlawfully and unfairly,” decreed the judge adding “Accordingly, judgment in Kilifi CM ELRC No. E23 of 2022 is hereby set aside.”
The judge also faulted a Kilifi magistrate’s judgement which claimed the journalist was an independent contractor arguing that the reporter was paid a month’s wage under the guise of a retainer, enjoyed 25 leave days under the guise of relief and tax deduction at the source of the wage as required under the Employment Act, 2007.
“The appellant cannot by any standard be defined as an independent contractor paying his taxes or working and running his business outside the respondent’s (NMG) control. He had set work conditions and terms. The response that he was free to write in other forums cannot be discerned from the agreement between the parties,” noted the judge.
In 2021, Charles Lwanga, then working with Nation Media Group as a Correspondent for Print (Daily Nation, Taifa Leo, East African and Business Daily) in Kilifi County, moved to court after he was unfairly dismissed from employment, a day after his one of his political stories hit the media headline.
During that time, it was alleged that the fearless bi-linguist reporter might have been pushed out of the newsroom for publishing political stories that did not impress some politicians and ‘politically implanted editors’.
