Odero, a former employee of Flutterwave, filed a lawsuit in 2018 seeking $900,000 in damages, claiming that the fintech business had neglected to remove her contact information from its M-Pesa Paybill account, causing her mental distress and harm to her reputation.
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Consequently, she was contacted by clients about business-related matters even after she resigned from her position as Flutterwave’s Head of Implementation for the Rest of Africa. Odero was granted Ksh. 100,000 for emotional anguish and Ksh. 150,000 for aggravated damages, totaling Ksh. 250,000 (about $2,500), which is far less than the $900,000 she had sought.
Nevertheless, the Court of Appeal confirmed the lower court’s ruling. The Magistrate set a ceiling of Ksh. 250,000 on the damages award. Considering that there was no indication of a reputational loss, I see no basis to challenge his conclusion. The amount was fair. recognized the decision rendered by Justice Alexander Muasya on Friday, September 27, 2024. READ N2 Billion Fraud Arrests 21-Year-Old Nigerian Odero filed the first lawsuit because she thought Flutterwave was careless in not deleting her name from the company’s pay bill contact list following her resignation.
She said that this resulted in a barrage of questions from the fintech’s clients, which hurt her reputation and embarrassed her in public. But the judge decided that she could not back up her statements with independent or medical evidence. In response, the court found no evidence of a connection between Flutterwave’s carelessness and any damage to its reputation. With a valuation of more than $3 billion, Flutterwave is regarded as the most valuable fintech in Africa.
The company apologized for the delay in updating Odero’s contact information and made an offer to resolve the issue peacefully. “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,” the company said in response to Odero’s charges, which included claims that CEO Olugbenga Agboola had bullied him. We firmly declare that bullying and harassment of any type are not tolerated in our company.
In the end, the appellate court determined that the damages granted were adequate to compensate for the mental anguish brought on by the error and found no reason to reverse the lower court’s decision. Odero’s appeal was denied by the court, and Flutterwave was given the appeal’s costs.
