Court Awards Sh214,000 to Kenyan Female Pastor Dismissed from Church for Engaging in Pre-marital Sex

A Labor Court in Nyeri has awarded Sh214,000 to a female pastor as damages for wrongful dismissal.

The 30-year-old pastor (name withheld) was dismissed from Methodist Church of Kenya after allegedly engaging in sex before marriage. In his ruling, Justice Nzioki Makau terms her dismissal from the church as unlawful and discriminative.

The pastor served the church from October 2016 to November 1st, 2017 when she received a letter of termination from Reverend Wilson Njagi, for the Synod Bishop, Nairobi News reports.

She was kicked out after the church leadership discovered that she fell pregnant before tying the knot, contrary to the church's moral standards.

“As noted, you did a church wedding on May 27, 2017 and you gave birth in the month on October the same year. That is five months instead of expected nine months,” the dismissal letter read in part.

“After investigations, it was noted the pregnancy had gone full cycle of nine months, showing you involved yourself in sex before marriage far much before your wedding, thus compromising the moral standards of the church which are supposed to uphold and lead as an example to those you were preaching to as an evangelist, indicating the claimant was involved in sex before marriage.”

Until her dismissal, the pastor was serving the flock at Nyeri Methodist and Suguroi-Ngobit church. Despite being served with court papers, the church failed to appear in  court, prompting the judge to listen to the pastor’s claims in the church's absence.

In her suit, the claimant said her dismissal was against the church standing orders and agenda but did not deny having engaged in pre-marital sex.

She argued that in church regulations, pregnancy of single female workers should itself not involve dismissal.

“Normal maternity leave should be granted and Christian pastoral counselling offered to both parties involved by the head of the institution. However, in order to assist the said female employee, there must be total honesty and disclosure of the matters at hand,” she told the court.

She sought compensation of Sh409,000 for unfair termination, unpaid house allowance, three months of unpaid maternity leave, 21 days annual leave, unpaid salary for November 2017 and un-remitted National Social Security Fund (NSSF) dues for a period of 15 months.

In his judgement, Justice Makau ordered the church to pay her Sh19,000 as compensation for 21 days’ annual leave and Sh57,000 for three months of unpaid maternity leave.

He further directed she be paid Sh114,000 as compensation for unfair termination, Sh5,066 for unpaid salary for eight days and Sh19,000 for one month salary in lieu of notice.