Kenyan teacher sues British school for dismissal

Greensteds international school Headmaster Toby Spence addressing the press at the school on September 4, 2014. PHOTO:KIPSANG JOSEPH/STANDARD]

A former Art teacher at an international school in Nakuru has moved to a Labour Court to demand aggravated damages for racial discrimination which allegedly led to wrongful dismissal.

Geoffrey Tunga Marani is also seeking the court to award him another Sh4.35 million as compensation for wrongful termination of his two-year contract at the school headed by Toby Spence (pictured) allegedly on racial grounds.

In a sworn affidavit filed in court, Mr Tunga says he was also the head of the Art department at Greensteds School, run by the British, from July 2014.

His contract was terminated on February 17. He claims he was ejected from the school compound with his seven-year-old daughter, who was in Standard Two at the same school, over allegations that he abandoned students during a school trip.

"Even more traumatising and brutal, the claimant's daughter was forcefully yanked out of class and frog-matched in front of all her schoolmates to their school house to pack their belongings and leave," his lawyer Mark Githiru states in the affidavit.

The teacher, a Bachelor of Education (Arts) graduate from Kenyatta University says his tribulations started after the trip to Brookhouse School on January 19 where he had taken 10 Art students for an interaction session.

He says the trip was organised by the school Head of Academics Nick Martyn, and he was to make his own arrangements for accommodation.

"I left the students in the able hands of my counterpart at Brookhouse as we had agreed with Mr Martyn and headed to where my wife lived in Nairobi," states Tunga, noting he returned to Brookhouse the next day at 6.30am to take charge of the students.

The trip, according to him, was successful as students arrived back in Greensteds safely and nobody raised any complaints until the first week of February when his performance was evaluated for a whole week. He says days later, Spence summoned him to his office and told him that his contract had been terminated.

Judge Stephen Radido had given the school until today to respond.