A former employee of Flutterwave, Clara Wanjiku Odero, has lost her appeal seeking $900,000 in damages against the Pan-African fintech giant.
The case, which dates back to Odero’s departure from Flutterwave in 2018, centered on claims of emotional distress and reputational damage.
As first reported by the Kenyan Wall Street, Odero, who previously served as Flutterwave’s Head of Implementation for Rest of Africa, had accused her former employer of failing to remove her contact details from its M-Pesa Paybill account after her resignation.
According to Odero, this oversight led to customers continuing to contact her about Flutterwave-related matters, causing her significant personal distress.
Despite her claims, the Kenyan Court of Appeal upheld a lower court ruling, awarding Odero a total of $1,937, far less than the $900,000 she had requested.
The damages included $775 for emotional distress and $1,163 as aggravated damages.
In his ruling on September 27, 2024, Justice Alexander Muasya noted that the original award was appropriate.
“The award in damages was capped at $1,937 by the Magistrate. I do not find reason to disturb his finding considering that there was no proof of loss of reputation. The sum was reasonable,” the court ruled.
The court found that Odero had failed to provide sufficient evidence to support her claims of reputational damage.
Furthermore, she was unable to present medical or independent documentation of the emotional distress she said she experienced.
As a result, the court concluded that there was no direct link between Flutterwave’s actions and any reputational harm.
The court dismissed Odero’s appeal and ordered her to pay Flutterwave’s legal costs for the appeal process.
Flutterwave, one of Africa’s most valuable fintech companies with a valuation exceeding $3 billion, had previously acknowledged the delay in updating Odero’s contact details but sought to resolve the issue amicably. The company expressed regret over the situation but denied allegations of bullying made by Odero against its CEO, Olugbenga Agboola.
“As an organization that continuously strives to create an environment where employees feel secure and safe, we take the recent allegations of bullying from a former employee very seriously,” Flutterwave stated in an earlier release.
“We categorically state that there is no place for bullying or harassment of any kind in our workplace,” it added.
Amid the court case, Flutterwave, last year announced plans to invest $50 million in Kenya once it receives regulatory approval from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).
The investment, according to the company, would be used to hire new staff and scale up Flutterwave’s infrastructure in Kenya.
As of September 2023, Flutterwave’s CEO, Olugbenga Agboola, said the company already had over two dozen staff in Kenya.
“We are very optimistic about Kenya and once we get the license, our team in the country is ready to deploy the very next day,” said Flutterwave CEO.
CBK in June this year announced plans to grant payment licences to financial technology startups soon, showing the green light to Flutterwave and other payment companies vying for licences in the country.
