Businessman and Directline Assurance shareholder Samuel Kamau (SK) Macharia has dismissed the top leadership of the matatu insurer, escalating the standoff with the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA).
Mr Macharia on Monday morning stormed Directline’s offices in Nairobi and fired senior management, including chief executive officer Sammy Kanyi and the head of finance.
High Court last year barred Mr Macharia from accessing the company’s premises, terminating or hiring any staff, or conducting financial transactions without shareholder or board approval.
Mr Macharia, who insists he controls Directline through Royal Credit Limited, named Wilson Wambugu Maina as acting CEO, Stella Kinoti as chief finance officer, with Elizabeth Kuria as her deputy and James Mari as ICT manager.
The events at Directline have led to a divided board, management, and staff, putting at risk customers who had paid the insurer Sh1.27 billion premiums in the half-year ended June 2025.
The insurer settled Sh1.55 billion claims during this period and closed with a net loss of Sh1.4 billion as per the IRA data.
The insurer on Monday issued a press statement saying that “it is business as usual” at the company, amid an ongoing shareholder dispute currently before the courts.”
The latest drama marks the latest flashpoint in the long-running ownership battle at Directline, pitting Mr Macharia against fellow shareholders and IRA, even as the insurer continues to lose market share.
Directline was a market leader in commercial public service vehicles (PSVs) insurance, commanding a market share of 61.56 percent as of December 2023.
However, the shareholding row, which had seen Mr Macharia withdraw Sh400 million from the company at some point last year and declare the company shut, has hurt the fortunes of the business.
Latest IRA data show that Africa Merchant Assurance (Amaco), which is partly owned by President William Ruto's family and associates, overtook Directline to command 54.71 percent market share at the end of March this year from 37.51 percent in December last year, as that of Directline fell to 35.67 percent from 47.97 percent.
This marked the first time that Directline has surrendered the lead since the IRA started disclosing PSV as a separate insurance line.
Royal Credit Limited had, for months last year, ignored IRA and aired cautionary media adverts, claiming that any insurance cover issued by the company is “invalid” due to “illegal” alteration of the share registry.
Early last year, Mr Macharia had secretly withdrawn Sh400 million from the insurer, wired it to his real estate firm, and announced that the firm had dissolved the board, fired all employees, shut down the company, and transferred all assets to Royal Credit—a company he chairs.
The secret transaction, which IRA later reversed through a court order, revived the five-year-old fight over the company’s shareholding structure.
