Unpaid wages when your employer goes bankrupt
Employment Act · sources read 4 Oct 2026
If your employer goes bankrupt or is wound up and your job ends, you can apply in writing to the Cabinet Secretary for Labour to be paid what you are owed (up to six months' wage arrears, notice pay, unused leave pay and some unfair dismissal awards) out of the NSSF. The payout is capped at KSh 10,000 or half your monthly pay, whichever is more, for each month.
- Deadline
- 3 months from the decision to complain to the Employment and Labour Relations Court
- Where
- In writing to the Cabinet Secretary for Labour (State Department for Labour); complaints go to the Employment and Labour Relations Court
Steps
- Write to the Cabinet Secretary for Labour, yourself or through a representative, asking to be paid what your insolvent employer owes you.
- If satisfied, the Cabinet Secretary pays you from the National Social Security Fund.
- If you are not paid, or paid less than you should be, you can complain to the Employment and Labour Relations Court within three months of the decision.
Watch out
- Only up to six months of unpaid wages are covered.
- The payout per month is capped at KSh 10,000 or half your monthly pay, whichever is more.
- When a job ends because of the employer's insolvency, the normal redundancy rules don't apply; this insolvency route does.
- The Cabinet Secretary can change this cap by a Gazette notice, so check for any newer order.
Who this covers
- Employees whose job has ended
- Where the employer has been declared bankrupt or made an arrangement with creditors
- Where the employer has died and the estate is being administered
- Where the employer is a company that is being wound up or is under administration, or has a receiver or manager appointed
Official sources (1)
- Employment Act (Cap. 226), consolidated new.kenyalaw.org · read 4 Oct 2026