The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) is in a mission to find out why many Kenyans do not take up insurance products.
This follows reports that at least 38 million Kenyans do not have any form of insurance.
The authority was in Nyanza over the week, meeting stakeholders with the aim of sensitizing them on the benefits of insurance, and understand their reservations for taking up the products.
Anne Chelagat, Manager, Consumer Education at the authority on Friday led a stakeholder engagement to find out the reasons behind the low penetration of insurance in the country.
According to Ms Chelagat, previous engagement had identified the complexities of messaging in the policy documents, mis-selling by the insurance agents, among others.
She noted that a number of interventions have been done by the authority, including training the insurance agents and policy providers on how to engage potential clients.
“We have simplified some of the products, such as the motor policy, the medical policy, and we continue to standardize and make them simple for the lay person,” she said.
Key among the stakeholders engaged by the authority include bodaboda riders,
Ms Chelagat noted that there are increased number of bodabodas in the country, yet a number of them are not insured despite the high risk of accidents they have.
Others are boat riders, teachers, businesspeople, chiefs, church leaders, youths among others.
“We believe if we create awareness among these groups, they can take it to the wider groups where they belong,” she said.
Some of the myths about insurance, Ms Chelagat said, include that insurance is expensive, insurance is not for the low income earners, and that insurance do not pay incase of incidents.
“We want people to know the truth about insurance,” she said.
