Kenyan reinsurers have said that, although the country’s new marine insurance law makes it mandatory for local cargo importers to insure their goods with local insurers, there is no requirement for those local insurers to reinsure marine cargo locally. Kenya Re CEO Jadiah Mwarania told The Standard that there were three reinsurers operating in Kenya, but that “there is nothing much for us to reap from the windfall expected when this law is fully entrenched. The law has little room to make it mandatory for underwriters benefiting from marine premiums to reinsure that risk”.
A 2016 industry performance report recently released by Kenya’s Insurance Regulatory Authority showed that reinsurance business in Kenya was shrinking, with GWP down 4.3% to KES17.6bn ($171m) in 2016, from KES18.4bn in 2015.