Teacher who defiled student in car loses job
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has succeeded in its efforts to terminate a teacher’s employment for defiling a student inside a car. The Labour Court ruled in favor of the TSC, upholding its decision to sack the teacher.
This decision follows a previous ruling by the Kakamega Senior Principal Magistrate’s Court, delivered on January 23, 2023, which had declared the teacher’s dismissal unfair and ordered his reinstatement. The lower court had based its decision on the collapse of the criminal case against the teacher, Julius Mutinye Makokha, who was accused of defiling a student from St Mary’s Girls’ Mumias.
However, the Labour Court disagreed with the lower court’s reasoning. The judge noted that it was insufficient to state that the minor’s pregnancy was not caused by Makokha but that he had engaged in immoral encounters with the minor. The judge, Lady Justice Jemimah Keli, set aside the lower court’s judgment, stating that it had erroneously based its findings on the outcome of a criminal case, rather than considering the matter holistically.
The judge expressed that a reasonable employer would have taken into account the breach of trust when a teacher, in a position of trust, had immoral conduct with a student. She mentioned that the teacher had provided the minor with a phone and given her rides in his car, which demonstrated an affair that violated the trust placed in him.
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The judge responded to TSC’s case against the reinstatement of the teacher, stating that the reinstatement orders were statute-barred and therefore null, as they were issued outside the three-year period allowed by the law.
Makokha was initially terminated on July 10, 2018, based on allegations of immoral behavior related to his sexual relationship with a student. The court considered the disciplinary proceedings and the minor’s confirmation of the sexual relations when evaluating the case.
Makokha argued that it was unusual for TSC to discipline him when a lower court had absolved him of blame for fathering a minor.
Teacher who defiled student in car loses job
