The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) is once again under the spotlight following fresh revelations that field reporters attached to the state-owned broadcaster have now gone unpaid for two consecutive months, reigniting public outrage over the institution’s chronic payment delays.
Correspondents working across the country say they are struggling to make ends meet, with some reportedly unable to afford basic necessities like baby supplies, transport and rent.
The situation paints a grim picture of systemic financial dysfunction at KBC in a pattern that is neither new nor isolated.
In recent years, correspondents, artists, producers, contract staff, and suppliers have repeatedly decried delayed or non-existent payments, with little meaningful intervention from top management or government authorities.
In December 2022, correspondents working for KBC appealed directly to the government after more than six months without pay.
“Dear Prof. Kisiang’ani, We Are Suffering!” – KBC Correspondents Unpaid For 6 Months
In 2024, multiple creatives linked to KBC programs complained of delayed payments stretching back to the previous year.
Some were forced to stop working entirely due to lack of income.
Earlier this year, royalty collection bodies disclosed that KBC owed artists hundreds of millions in unpaid usage fees.
Recurrent Artist Payment Delays at KBC Push Creatives to the Brink
Even retirees and long-serving staff have not been spared, with some reports showing that the broadcaster had failed to remit pension contributions for years, leaving former employees in financial ruin.
For workers currently filing stories, producing shows, or handling equipment, payment delays have become the norm.
The current group of unpaid field reporters is now operating without fuel allowances, without per diems, and without a timeline for when salaries will be processed.
Management has not provided explanations, timelines, or apology letters. Instead, employees continue to receive production assignments, attend editorial meetings, and deliver daily output without compensation.
Many now rely on mobile loans, colleagues, or side gigs to stay afloat.
Meanwhile, the corporation’s programming, built on this unpaid labour, continues to run without interruption.
Shows produced months ago by unpaid artists are still being aired while regional stories filed by unpaid reporters are still used as bulletins.
The core problem appears to be financial mismanagement and administrative failure at the highest levels because budget allocations appear not to be translating into payments.
Although KBC continues to receive substantial public funding and generates additional revenue from advertising and licensing, the funds allocated for content development and staff remuneration are evidently not reaching the teams responsible for the actual production of news and programming.
Salaries remain frozen within opaque internal bottlenecks, and senior management has chosen silence over transparency, offering no communication, no timelines, and no accountability.
As a publicly funded institution tasked with delivering national programming and shaping cultural narratives, KBC has an obligation not only to its audience but also to the workers who sustain its daily operations.
The consistent failure to pay staff, contractors, and contributors for work already completed is not just a matter of administrative incompetence but a breach of public trust.
Continued neglect of these financial obligations risks hollowing out the broadcaster from within, as skilled personnel abandon their posts in search of more stable opportunities, and those who remain are pushed into financial distress with no safety net or assurance of redress.
If KBC, with all the structural and fiscal support afforded to it as a state-owned entity, cannot meet its most basic obligation, to pay the people producing its content, then it has no moral or institutional basis to continue collecting public funds or commercial revenue in the name of national service.
