Piece by: Maureen Waruinge

13 May 2022

• Tony Finn, 64, claimed he had been a victim of sexual harassment. He took his employer to a tribunal after he was called a “bald c***” by a supervisor.

Kenya's representative of the Bald Men Movement, Bien Aime Baraza has spoken about a recent court ruling that stipulated, that it is sexual harassment if you comment on a man's baldness in the office.

It is equivalent to making similar comments about the size of a woman's breasts, ruled a panel of three employment judges.

One Judge commented that hair loss is much more prevalent among men than women so using it to describe someone is a form of discrimination and prejudice.

The decision is a result of a complaint from an electrician Tony Finn, who sued a small Yorkshire-based family business, where he’d worked for nearly 24 years, for unfair dismissal and sexual harassment. He accused a colleague of calling him a “fat bald c—.”.

The all-male, three-member tribunal panel agreed that Finn didn’t complain about the “industrial language” of the shop floor but the epithets relating to his age and hair.

Each of the three judges overseeing the North Yorkshire tribunal themselves suffered from hair loss and concluded using the word ‘bald’ to describe someone is a form of discrimination.

“It is difficult to conclude other than that” those words were spoken “with the purpose of violating the claimant’s dignity and creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for him,” the judgment said.

And Kenyan singer Bien Aime agreed fully, endorsing the message. He took to his social media pages and wrote, "There you have it. Don’t let ignorance catch you on the wrong side of the law. The Bald Men Association Celebrates this move. My heart goes out to all the Bald Men who have been suffering this harassment. Keep our Bald heads out your f@$king mouth 😂."

Bien and Aaron Rimbui collaborated on a song dubbed Bald Men Anthem with some of the lyrics going...

'Shine your head, it's a crown. Don't let anybody ever put you down. Everything they do, we do it better. You need a bald man to love you better, baby. Shine your head, it's a crown. Don't let anybody ever put you down Everything they do, we do it better. You need a bald man to love you better, baby. She say she want a bald man She say she need a bald man. You know once you go bald, no, you don't come back. So man a bald man come break this back, oh."