Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) is on the verge of collapse unless the Government pumps in Sh1 billion to modernise it.

Weighing under a debt of Sh18 billion, the State broadcaster is said to have accrued most of the liability through obsolete equipment acquired on Sh10 billion loan from Japan.

Information and Communications PS Bitange Ndemo told Parliamentary Committee on Energy and Communications that KBC acquired the equipment at the time technology was shifting from medium wave to frequency modulation (FM), thus subjecting it to losses.

"We have requested some money from the Treasury and unless the Government sets in, KBC is on the verge of collapse," Ndemo told the committee.

The Government has paid about Sh9 billion of the loan, but the equipment is not viable and contributed 80 per cent of the debt.

Modern equipment

With the old equipment that uses medium wave, the broadcaster foots a monthly power bill of Sh30 million.

The PS told the committee this could be reduced to Sh5 million if the broadcaster is modernised.

Committee Chairman James Rege and Rarieda MP Nicholas Gumbo queried whether it was viable to service the debts, but Information Minister Samuel Poghisio said: "KBC is still strategic and it should be subsidised and developed. It broadcasts in 19 vernacular languages reaching communities that private media houses avoid".

The minister said KBC would play a critical role in the migration from analogue to digital TV transmission, which is expected to start in September.

Kibwezi MP Philip Kaloki, a member of the committee, faulted the ministry for not exercising responsibility by allowing Japan to ‘dump the equipment’.

The committee also heard that Sh2.4 billion assets belonging to Multi-Media University were irregularly transferred to the Communications Commissions of Kenya when the University was taken over by the Ministry of Education.

Ndemo said this could raise auditing queries as he called for a repeal of the Universities Act to exempt Multi-Media University from falling under the Ministry of Education.

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