Reinsurance firm ZEP-RE has been nominated by Kenya and other four countries to take some of the risks by underwriters offering loss protection policies to livestock farmers as part of a Sh45.3 billion programme.
The programme covering multiple countries and supported by the World Bank comes at a time Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture says livestock worth billions of shillings have died in the past five months.
ZEP-RE is the reinsurance arm of Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).
Director of Livestock Production Bishar Elmi said at least 2.6 million livestock have died between October last year to February 2022, with the situation expected to worsen as the effects of drought continue to be felt across the country.
“We have lost a significant part of livestock since October last year whose value is estimated at Sh37.7 billion,” said Mr Elmi.
The insurance will include the Horn of Africa countries like Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea, which will also be covered under this programme.
These countries have been included in the drought insurance programme dubbed Drive (De-risking, Inclusion and Value Enhancement of Pastoral Economies), leveraging on the success of the Kenya Livestock Insurance Programme (KLIP).
