Kariuki v Widrups Groups Limited & another (Cause E710 of 2023) [2024] KEELRC 1832 (KLR)
The bottom line
#A Kenyan court ruled an intern is legally an employee entitled to unpaid wages, but threw out her unfair termination claim because she couldn't prove it.
What this practically means
#Executive summary
#Key legal issues
#Employment status of the Claimant
The Claimant was an indentured learner and thus an employee of the Respondent.
The bank statements showed regular monthly payments establishing a monetary relationship, but no verifiable evidence proved engagement as a Resident Engineer. The Claimant produced no qualification documents despite alleging she was an engineer. The Respondent's account of an internship arranged through Engineer Mwaniki at Kshs.75,000/= monthly was found more credible, and under the Employment Act and Industrial Training Act definitions, the Claimant fell within the category of an indentured learner, hence an employee.
Whether termination was unfair
The Claimant failed to prove that her employment was terminated at all, or that any termination was unfair.
Section 47(5) places the burden of proving unfair termination on the employee. The Claimant gave two inconsistent versions (Mr. Mumo's communication on 17th January versus instructions to hand over and resign on 19th January), produced no corroboration, and her Labour Office letter contradicted her written statement on dates. The Respondent denied terminating her. On the totality, the Claimant did not prove termination within the meaning of Section 45.
Salary arrears
Uncontroverted evidence of unpaid salary from October 2022 to mid-January 2023 was awarded at Kshs.70,000/= net per month.
The Respondents admitted owing Kshs.175,000/= for the internship and did not controvert the Claimant's evidence that she was unpaid for October, November, December 2022 and 17 days of January 2023. The court awarded the net monthly figure of Kshs.70,000/= for the three full months plus 17 days, without requiring proof of unfair termination since the debt was admitted or uncontroverted.
Legal principles established
#- Fair termination requires both substantive justification and procedural fairness.
- The burden of proving unfair termination rests on the employee, and is not discharged by bare allegations.
- An intern/attachment without a written contract may qualify as an indentured learner and thus an employee under Section 2(1) of the Employment Act.
Court orders
#- 1.Award of unpaid salary for October, November and December 2022 of Kshs.210,000/= (Kshs.70,000 x 3).
- 2.Award of salary for 17 days worked in January 2023 of Kshs.38,387.1; total award Kshs.248,387.1.
- 3.Certificate of service to be issued within 30 days.
- 4.Parties shall bear own costs.
- 5.Claim otherwise dismissed.
- Jurisdiction invoked
- Employment and Labour Relations Court Act, Section 12 (employment and labour relations disputes)
Key timeline
#Practical implications
#Frequently asked questions
#Later judgments citing this (1)
#Judgments in the corpus that rely on this one. Where the Court said how it treated the authority, that is shown.
- Kenya County Government Workers Union v County Government of Kitui & another (Constitutional Petition E003 of 2024) [2025] KEELRC 3735 (KLR)[2025] KEELRC 3735 (KLR)17 Dec 2025
Cite this brief
#Cite this brief
Caselaw, "Kariuki v Widrups Groups Limited & another (Cause E710 of 2023) [2024] KEELRC 1832 (KLR)", Case Analysis (2024). Not stated in the judgment as provided. Source: https://new.kenyalaw.org/akn/ke/judgment/keelrc/2024/1832/eng@2024-07-04
Suggested citation format for research notes or client memos. Always verify the original judgment before relying on any point.