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Expatriates working for insurance companies should be immediately replaced by Kenyans, the commissioner of insurance, Sammy Makove claims. Makove criticises one insurance company which has employed eight expatriates.

“I have asked that underwriter to sack the expatriates and replace them with local professionals,” he says. Makove was responding to an appeal by the Insurance Institute of Kenya chairman, Stephen Wandera.

“The insurance sector is not rocket science. Even if it was, nearly 40 years of operation in rocket science would yield home grown experience,” Wandera says.

Wandera adds that immigration department officials had colluded with some companies to allow several expatriates to work there.

“The stand of the institute is that chief executives and managers of insurance companies should be Kenyan,” he says.

The two officials were speaking when the newly elected members of the institute’s executive committee visited the commissioner in his Nairobi office.

Makove says from next year, no insurer would be permitted to reinsure with an international reinsurance company unless that reinsurance company had a good rating from a reputable agency. He says he would ensure underwriters charged premium rates that they had filed with his office.

“The insurance act requires underwriters to file their premium rates with my office and this must be done at all times and before any variations on the rate can be effected,” he says.

Makove has told the Association of Kenya Insurers and the Association of Insurance Brokers of Kenya to desist from operating as cartels.

AKI was recently stopped by the monopolies and prices commissioner from setting prices of insurance premiums, following complaints about its cartel-like behaviour.

Wandera says a committee has been established to comprehensively classify insurable risks in

  • Kenya. A press centre has also been established at the institute to publish books on insurance.