- A Nairobi mother has sued Hospital Hill Comprehensive School after her daughter was suspended over disputed claims of spending time at an Airbnb with a male learner.
- The petition alleges the school unlawfully accessed the learner’s Instagram account and failed to provide a fair hearing before imposing suspension and counselling directives.
- The lawsuit, now before Milimani High Court, is expected to examine the limits of school authority, learners’ privacy rights, and procedures in handling allegations involving minors.
A Nairobi parent has sued Hospital Hill Comprehensive School, its head teacher and other officials at the Milimani High Court after her Grade Eight daughter was suspended over claims that she spent time at an Airbnb with a male learner during the mid-term break.
Court documents show the school sent the learner home on July 3 and directed that she undergo counselling before being readmitted, after alleging that she had booked or attended an Airbnb during the school break and had been seen in the company of a male student. These claims formed the basis of both the suspension and the counselling directive issued by the administration.
But the mother has rejected the allegations as false, baseless and unsupported by evidence, telling the court she was fully aware of her daughter’s whereabouts during the break and had authorised her movements.
According the petition, the learner instead attended a birthday party at a friend’s residence where students from different schools were present, and never rented, visited or stepped into any Airbnb premises or spent time with a male learner as the school claimed.
The parent argues that the school acted unfairly and invaded her daughter’s privacy in the course of its investigations, and her lawsuit further accuses a teacher of unlawfully accessing and inspecting the learner’s Instagram account without consent. She claims the school compelled the minor to log into the account as part of the probe, an action she says violated the learner’s right to privacy and data protection.
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Named in the suit are the school, the head teacher, the chairperson of the board of management and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), while the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and the Commission on Administrative Justice have been enjoined as interested parties.
The petition also takes issue with how the school handled the disciplinary process, with the mother contending that neither she nor her daughter was accorded a meaningful hearing before the suspension was imposed, and that the learner was never allowed to respond to the allegations against her.
She has also questioned the counselling directive itself, pointing out that the suspension letter did not state how long the counselling programme would run, the qualifications of the counsellor handling it, or whether she would be involved as the parent.
The case, still pending before the Milimani High Court, is expected to test the limits of school disciplinary powers, learners’ privacy rights and the procedures institutions must follow when handling allegations involving minors.
By Kimwele Mutuku
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