How CEO's boasting 'one-night stand' texts cost his company millions

A ‘one-night stand’ WhatsApp message and a sexually explicit ohangla video sent by an IT company’s Chief Executive Officer to a female employee following a night out have cost his firm Sh1.2 million.

The employee told the Employment and Labour Relations Court that she was forced to resign after alleged rape and sexual harassment by the CEO of Pawa IT Solutions Limited, coupled with a salary reduction and unfair treatment after reporting the matter.

Although the executive denied raping her while she was tipsy, Judge Stella Rutto found that the woman’s decision to seek medical attention the same night, coupled with the CEO’s incriminating message, led to the conclusion that she was telling the truth.

The judge ruled that the WhatsApp video, which contained sexual innuendos in its English translation, crossed professional boundaries, regardless of the CEO’s claim that it was “humour” and that he had also sent it to his wife and others.

“The text messages sent by the first respondent to the claimant, when considered alongside the definition of sexual harassment, lead me to conclude that they constitute sexual harassment,” Justice Rutto said.

The incident occurred on January 14, 2023 at the Orchid Club, Nairobi. The employee testified that the CEO raped her in the RFUEA Grounds car park as she went to retrieve her bag from the back seat of his car. She said she was tipsy, unable to fight back or scream, 

She narrated that her colleague whom she was to share a taxi with found her after waiting at the entrance of the clubs’s grounds, distressed and in tears.

The colleague accompanied her to St Peter’s Hospital in Muthiga, but she was turned away for lack of a police report and P3 form. She said she was hesitant to record a statement given that she was still distressed. But the following day, she sought treatment at Coptic Hospital.

The claimant told the court she endured the trauma silently at first, fearing the financial insecurity of losing her job in a tough economy. She later sought help from the organisation Usikimye after receiving further inappropriate memes and texts from the CEO.

On January 19, 2023, she received more non-work-related messages, followed days later by a text message claiming that she had allegedly left her lipstick in his vehicle. The CEO then accused her of “ghosting” him after a “one-night stand”, asking whether his “performance was dismal”.

When she denied leaving any lipstick and reminded him that they had agreed to act “as if nothing happened”, he replied: “Oooh yes. I forgot.”

The CEO, in his response, claimed that the choice of his language was meant to make her open up about what she had said happened on the night of January 13, 2023.

He alleged that when they were driving to the club, she touched his ears and head inappropriately, and that he felt awkward knowing he was a married man. Nevertheless, he said that he assumed she was intoxicated as she had drunk alcohol at the office.

He claimed that his wife joined them at the club at around midnight, and they continued making merry until 2 am when people started to leave. According to him, his colleagues, including the complainant, also decided to leave.

As they were leaving, he said that she requested to pick her laptop bag, which she had left in his car.  He alleged she behaved inappropriately towards him, wrapping her hands around his waist but assumed she needed help walking down the stairs as she appeared intoxicated.

On reaching the car, he claimed she asked him to help her retrieve her bag, which was at the back seat of his car. According to him, she then proceeded to enter the car and, instead of picking up her bag, she sat in the car. He further claimed that he asked her to pick up her bag as he wanted to get back to the club where his wife and the customer representative were, as he needed to settle the bill.

The man said that at some point, he entered the car in an attempt to plead with her to pick up her bag and leave but she allegedly started touching and fondling him. He said he was startled and immediately exited the car. The female colleague who had been waiting for her appeared shortly thereafter.

Justice Rutto, however, found his account inconsistent and noted the woman had a post-rape care form to corroborate her testimony.

“I highly doubt that the claimant would make a fun trip to St. Peters Hospital in Muthiga in the wee hours of the morning of 14th January 2023 and subsequently, Coptic Hospital in the afternoon. On a balance of probabilities, this Court is persuaded that there was a sexual encounter between the claimant and the first respondent..,” he said.

 She ruled that the CEO’s text messages were not humour but evidence of inappropriate conduct, amounting to the “worst form of gender-based violence in the workplace”.

Justice Rutto further observed that the claimant reported directly to the CEO, creating a hostile and intolerable work environment. She awarded her Sh1.2 million as compensation and dismissed the company’s Sh6.5 million counterclaim.