This archive report was first published on 13 July 2021.
On July 13, 2021, a Kenyan court ordered Safaricom to pay a blind man Sh6 million as compensation for failing to hire him as a customer care executive.
The court ruled that Safaricom breached Wilson Macharia's rights and failed to treat him with dignity by denying him an opportunity despite interviewing and inviting him to sign an employment contract.
Mr. Macharia accused Safaricom of denying him the job based on his disability and sued for compensation for discrimination and violation of his rights.
Safaricom denied the discrimination claims, arguing it gave Mr. Macharia an opportunity to be interviewed for the job.
However, the court found that Safaricom's excuse for not hiring Mr. Macharia was an afterthought, introduced late in the process to the detriment of the petitioner.
Mr. Macharia, an ICT graduate, had responded to an advertisement by Safaricom in August 2016 for a customer experience executive position.
The advertisement invited qualified Kenyans irrespective of 'race, colour, religion, gender, tribal origin, disability or age.'
Mr. Macharia went through the oral interview and medical test after the technical aspect was removed, awaiting the software integration.
He was invited to sign the contract in July 2017 but the company said the invite was erroneous.
The company later failed to hire him for lack of a system integrated to allow the software that enables visually impaired persons to work.
