Only 3pc of houses covered by insurance companies

Only about three percent of the building structures in Kenya and less than two percent of their contents are covered by a valid insurance policy.

According to CIC General Insurance #ticker:CIC managing director Elijah Wachira, the small number of properties insured has persisted despite risks having been realised in a number of cases.

He said up to 20 percent of houses whose owners are paying mortgages are not insured mainly due to failure to renew the original policies written at the time of taking the loan.

The owner of such uninsured house faces the real risk of continuing to pay a mortgage for a non-existent house or building if this were to be destroyed in an accident. “When someone is taking a mortgage, banks normally ensure that one takes insurance, but this has to be renewed annually. Some people don’t renew the policies and this is where problems come in,” said Mr Wachira.

The low penetration of domestic insurance is also seen in failure to cover contents of the houses or buildings.

This also includes items that do not always reside in them such as phones, cameras, laps tops, jewellery, wigs and the like.

Covering what is in the house and what is carried outside it by its owners would come under what underwriters describe as all-risk cover. “These low figures are a result of people not seeing the real risk that exists should something happen to the items in the house or those they carry outside it,” said Mr Wachira.

He, however, added that a good domestic cover also needs to include workers in the house because of the chances that something can happen to them including getting injured and falling sick.