Lead image for Timely pension remittance key to securing retirement benefits.
Increased pension scheme membership, now standing at about 7.71 million Kenyan workers, is a commendable achievement. Employees contribute to pension schemes with a promise that when they can no longer work, that money will be waiting for them.
For a growing number of workers, that promise will be realised based on timely contributions. The law and regulations on pension schemes in Kenya provide guidelines and remedies on contributions.
The pensions sector has witnessed tremendous gains in the past 25 years, including transformation of public sector pension provision.
Key among this is the shift to defined contribution pension schemes where members’ benefits are informed by investment returns.
Therefore, for every shilling not remitted, a member loses the principal but also years of compounded investment income they can never recover.
The inference of this is that employers should put a deliberate effort to remit on time so as not to jeopardise the wellbeing of their employees. Data from the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) shows that unremitted contributions across Kenya’s retirement benefits sector stood at Sh73.14 billion in December 2025. These figures include real deductions taken from workers payslips that were never transferred to the schemes meant to grow and safeguard them.
The credibility of the sector rests on employers’ remittance as a non-negotiable obligation rather than a discretionary expense to be deferred when budgets tighten. When a payroll deduction are directed towards other pressing costs, it implies that quietly borrowing from their own employees' futures, without consent and without collateral.
It is worth reflecting on what the Sh73.14 billion represents, not just as unpaid contributions but as a foregone investment income. Pensions schemes do not hold members contributions in cash. Schemes invest members’ contributions in line with the investment guidelines issued by the RBA, and as per individual scheme’s prudent investment policy.