November 16, 2024

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Racism, discrimination claims against Kenyan staff rocks British Council office in Nairobi

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Mission of Kenya’s colonialists in Nairobi, British Council, is facing probe of discrimination, racism, bullying and harassment at its Nairobi office.

Seven current and former staff members, all Kenyan citizens claim they were subjected to systemic racism.

The British Mission in Nairobi is one of the oldest missions to be established in the Republic of Kenya.

In a letter to the British Council and Kenyan authorities, the seven claim they were discriminated against during a redundancy process that they say favoured white colleagues.

“The cases underline a repeated practice by white members of staff to constantly assign Kenyans as underperformers, inadequate, unskilled, unprofessional, and suspects as the organisation abuses its procedures and systems to validate its discriminative practice,” read part of the letter.

The letter alleges that the programme manager, who worked at the British Council from August 2014 to 2019, claimed they were put at risk of redundancy without adequate explanation.

Another complainant claimed they resigned as a senior official of the Kenyan office’s welfare association after a white executive frustrated efforts to channel staff concerns to the senior leadership team.

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“Staff have no confidence raising concerns through HR … for fear of being victimised,” the complainant said.

Additionally, a manager for the professional skills centre in Kenya claimed they were among a number of black employees who were unfairly targeted for redundancy.

The allegations come amid cuts in central government funding for the British Council as well as a shortfall of income related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The British Council confirmed that due to the impact of Covid-19 on their commercial income, which they previously used to subsidise their offices overseas, they have an overall decline in their funding compared to pre-Covid.

“…we face a significant funding gap and as a result, we will need to look at delivering our work in 20 countries remotely or digitally,” stated the council.

Besides the British High Commission in Kenya, the British Council is a subsidiary wing of the British Mission in Kenya seeking to advance United Kingdom’s foreign policy through arts and culture, education and the English language.