The insurance industry paid claims worth Sh39.1 billion in the first three months of 2023, which is a six per cent increase compared, compared to Sh36.8 billion paid out same time last year, a report has revealed.

A quarterly report by the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) for the period between January to March 2023 shows that the industry paid about 2.4 million claims compared to 2.1 reported in the same period in 2022, or a 14.2 per cent increase.

During the period under review, 10,619 general liability claims amounting to Sh4.6 billion and 1.6 million non-liability claims amounting to Sh16.3 billion were paid.

Long-term claims

It represented a decrease of 24.6 per cent for general liability claims and 6.7 per cent for non-liability claims from 14,085 claims (Sh4.2 billion) and 1,714,723 claims (Sh17 billion) respectively reported in quarter four, 2022.

Long-term claims paid were 875,980 (Sh18.2 billion), a 753.1 per cent increase compared to 102,678 claims (Sh19.36 billion) paid in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The report which covers the first three months of 2023 up to March 31 says that both long-term and general insurance business underwriters are required to submit monthly summary of claims returns to IRA within 15 days from the end of the month to which they relate.

During the period under review, 51 liability claims amounting to Sh14.2 million, and 2,556 non-liability claims amounting to Sh438 million were declined. This was a decline from 53 liability claims amounting to Sh33.4 million and 6,365 nonliability claims amounting to Sh226.5 million recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Long-term declined claims were 101 amounting to Sh71 million, a reduction from 175 claims amounting to Sh225.7 million in Quarter 4, 2022. Declined claims refer to those claims that an insurer declined to pay during the quarter for various reasons as per policy documents or otherwise.

The Insurance Regulatory Authority, a State corporation, is mandated to regulate, supervise and promote the development of the insurance industry in Kenya. Key players regulated by IRA include insurance companies, reinsurance companies, insurance brokers, insurance agents, motor assessors, insurance investigators, insurance surveyors, loss adjustors, claim settling agents, and risk managers