• Two minors were expelled after their father queried director's 'aggressive' behaviour
• In response, he said a private service contract with the father had been terminated
Image: COURTESY
Two minors who were expelled from Makini Schools allegedly due to the activity of their father, who is a member of the institution's Parents Teachers Association, have been readmitted.
Justice Mugure Thande suspended a letter dated July 7 that expelled the minors from school pending determination of a matter filed by their mother.
The temporary directive was to allow the minors to sit for their exams.
The court further ordered that their parents pay school fees for the children.
She also terminated a similar matter instituted by the parents before the director of children’s services.
The mother of the minors filed the case in court last week after the two were expelled because their father allegedly raised issues over the institution's regional managing director Horace Mpanza's behaviour.
The minors are in Grade 3 and Grade 4.
According to the court documents, the association, in a letter dated July 5, raised several concerns regarding the welfare of the learners.
Some of the issues raised include a high turnover of teachers through dismissal and 'aggressive behaviour' of Mpanza.
The papers cite carrying firearms within the school compound, smoking within the institution in the presence of learners and erection of a smoking zone within the school.
But Mpanza in response to the case filed by the minor’s mother has dismissed the allegations levelled against him.
He has accused the father of the minor of defaming him when he said he smokes in front of children and carries a firearm.
“These utterances have resulted in me being scorned, ridiculed and threatened by various people unknown to myself,” he says in his replying affidavit.
Mpanza says the enrolment of the minors and stay at the school was purely and strictly contractual.
It was governed by the rules and conditions of enrolment and re-registration and parents' or guardians' conduct, roles and responsibilities, he says.
The director says the minor’s father made two separate applications to the school on or about January 8, 2019, in respect to their admission.
"The father and the school entered into the private service contract with the full knowledge that it could be terminated at the instigation of either party," Mpanza says.
"This upon the occurrence of such events as the inability to continue paying fees or the presence of circumstances that negate the school's ability to continue imparting knowledge on the minors."
Mpanza wants the case as filed by the mother of the minors dismissed, saying she has no legal right to institute.
This, he says, is based on the fact that she is not a signatory to the private service contract that governed the admission of the two minors to the school.
"Neither did she pay school fees during the minors' stay at the school," Mpanza said.
"I note that the mother has conveniently blurred out the father's name on the disputed notice of termination to withhold the very material information regarding her lack of privity of the private service contract stated."
Mpanza contends that the issues raised in the petition by the mother fall within the realm of private service contracts capable of being determined under the alternative existing mechanism for redress in civil law.
According to the court documents, the school terminated its private service contract with the father of the minors around July 7.
What followed was a refund of Sh120,000 paid out as fees.
But despite knowing that the minors were no longer students of Makini and monies being refunded, their father sneaked the minors into the school on at least two occasions, Mpanza says.
“The private service contract having been terminated and the monies having been refunded to him, the contractual relationship between the father and the school is effectively dead,” he says.
Mpanza says despite the parents having instituted the case, they have commenced parallel proceedings before the county director, children’s services, over the same issues. But justice Thande has since terminated the same.
The documents indicate that the contractual relationship between the school and the minor's father became increasingly strained over the years.
The parent has allegedly been harassing and intimidating the school's employees.
“He has occasionally wielded his power as the unlawful chairperson of the PTA and falsely promised job security to the academic staff regardless of whether they have incidents of misconduct or not,” Mpanza says.
“This in addition to threatening the job security of the school's previous managing director.”
The case will be heard on September 20.