Cash-strapped State broadcaster Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) is entangled in a legal tussle over Sh2.7 billion deducted from employees’ salaries but not remitted to their retirement benefits scheme.

KBC Staff Retirement Benefits Scheme members now fear they will retire into poverty since the broadcaster has not remitted the deductions for nearly a decade.

“At least 70 per cent of KBC employees are aged over 48 years and are living in fear of retirement given that they will neither receive pension lump sum nor be eligible for pension income because of the financial damage directly caused by the State broadcaster,” says one of the claimants, Ms Jane Kiambi, in court documents.

As a result of KBC’s failure to remit employees’ contributions together with its own, according to the trustees, the low funding level has exposed the scheme to massive risks.

“The actions of KBC have put the scheme in great financial jeopardy.