When Faith Becomes a Workplace Policy: Religious Discrimination and the Kenyan Employee's Rights
When Faith Becomes a Workplace Policy: Religious Discrimination and the Kenyan Employee's Rights By Purity K. Mbaabu, Advocate of the High Court of Kenya | Purity K. Mbaabu & Associate Advocates An employer's personal faith is theirs to hold. The moment it is imposed on employees through mandatory prayer sessions, religious dress codes unrelated to the job, denial of leave for an employee's own day of worship, or hiring and promotion decisions coloured by religious preference, it stops being faith and becomes a legal liability. Kenyan law does not leave this grey. The Constitution and the Employment Act are direct, detailed, and enforceable on this point. This piece breaks down exactly what the law says, where employers most commonly get it wrong, and what an affected employee, or a business trying to stay compliant needs to do next. 1. The Constitutional Foundation Article 32 :Freedom of Conscience, Religion, Belief and Opinion Article 32(1) guarantees ever...