Kenya motor insurers on the spot over payments delay

By VINCENT OWINO

The regulator in demand of managing the level of competition landscape in Kenya has taken action in opposition to 18 insurance plan firms discovered culpable of delaying payments to motor vehicle assessors and repairers.

The intervention by the Level of competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) will see the compact-scale firms receive at minimum $323,349 (Ksh38 million) that the insurance policy corporations have delayed paying out for services rendered as considerably back as 5 yrs in the past, in revamped attempts to lessen abuse of consumer electrical power rampant in the sector.

Priscilla Njako, CAK’s manager for the Consumer Energy office, explained investigations are ongoing and insurance coverage companies uncovered to have abused purchaser electricity to the disadvantage of some 5 small-scale assessors and 20 repairers will be brought to guide.

“Such actions area hundreds of livelihoods at chance considering the fact that their sources of profits arrive beneath unbearable and unjustifiable financial strain,” Ms Njako stated.

The authority stated the insurers’ steps experienced imperilled the livelihoods of at least 1,000 Kenyans, and seriously strained the corporations.

Considering that the introduction of a law against abuse of buyer energy in 2019, the authority suggests most complaints have been from coverage corporations, this financial calendar year accounting for 72 p.c of all complaints lodged and investigated. This is towards the backdrop of reported losses in motor insurance, occasioned by mounting circumstances of fraudulent promises.

“Suppliers and purchasers should really cultivate a society of conducting enterprise while referencing published contracts to minimise conflicts,” CAK claimed in a statement.

The authority has made product contracts that will now be obligatory in dealings in between prospective buyers and sellers in the retail and insurance coverage sectors. The contract paperwork the phrases of payment, disorders for termination and a dispute resolution mechanism.