Mukumu Girls cook sacked for 'talking to journalists' sues

Ex-Mukumu Girls cook Douglas Muchela. He accuses the school of maliciously sacking him. [Courtesy]

The cook who was sacked after he blew the whistle on Mukumu Girls has sued the school for wrongful dismissal.

Douglas Muchela accuses the school of maliciously sacking him after diligently serving it.

He also wants the school headed by board chair Father Vincent Mukokho and the Principal Sister Jane Mmbone, to pay him for exposure to an unhygienic working environment that made him suffer severe stomach pains on April 17, this year.

Through lawyer Edwin Wafula the cook has written to the school demanding gratuity for the time he served and compensation on the two grounds, and the cost of the suit.

"Muchela avers that his termination was initiated, done and effected by Mukumu Girls' Board of Management unlawfully, arbitrarily, punitively and without following the required procedure. The board's unlawful actions was actuated by malice and amount to unfair labour practice which has exposed him to career stress and loss, mental strain and anguish, embarrassment and financial loss and damages," reads the memo of claim by Wafula filed on Thursday at the Labour and Industrial Relations Court, Kakamega.

"He says that on June 2, 2023, he was served with a notice to show cause for inter-alia, insubordination and issuing unsubstantiated information against the school to the media...the said notice was issued based on falsehoods, innuendos and as an attempt by the Board to cover a matter that was already in the public domain."

Muchela, a former head chef at the school's bakery had two years to retire.

He attributes the genesis of his troubles, in his court papers, to his "honorable act" of declining to be transferred from the bakery to the main kitchen after he raised the issue of food contamination.

He wants the court to direct the school to reinstate him, and in default, ordered to pay his terminal dues and other benefits that would have accrued up to his retirement.