Kenya seeks insurance fraud prosecution unit

Kenya’s finance ministry is in discussion with the office of the attorney general to start insurance fraud prosecution unit following the launch of the insurance fraud police unit as the government seeks to end insurance fraud in the country. Acting Finance Minister Njeru Githae announced on Monday during the launch of the Kenya Police Anti-Fraud Insurance Unit that insurance fraud is one of the threats against Kenya’s achievement of Vision 2030 aimed at making Kenya achieve middle income status. “Insurance fraud leads to increase in the cost premiums and this has limited the number of people who can afford insurance, yet our intention is to have as many Kenyans as possible afford insurance,” Githae said. “It is also a threat to the very existence of insurance companies. Their collapse because of fraud is a drawback to the growth of financial sector.” He said insurance fraud is so high such that there are some people who have made a career out of stealing from insurance companies. “To move forward, we must dismantle cartels of these criminals,” he said. It is estimated that 40 percent of all claims paid by insurance companies in Kenya are fraudulent. The collapse of more ten insurance companies in Kenya in the last two decades is also attributed to fraudulent claims. The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) said the country should have specific laws that penalize insurance related crimes. “Other countries with successful insurance industries have such specific laws and this is a matter we would like have replicated here,” said Steve Mainda, the chairman of the IRA.The Kenya Police Anti-Fraud Insurance Unit was formed last year in response to the escalating cases of fraud in the insurance industry. So far, the unit has been able to unearth a racket involving fake insurance stickers for public service vehicles. According to IRA Chief Executive Officer Sammy Makove, insurance stickers of public service vehicles plying one of the commuter routes in the capital Nairobi known as Kayole, are all fake. “We are going to ground all these vehicles until they change to genuine ones. There are many other routes doing the same and we hope this action will make them change,” said Makove. The unit is part of the police reforms that require the force to have specialized officers in several trades. “The police reforms are envisaged to challenge police officers to know more than the policing aspects and this training come in handy as it gives that extra knowledge and skills required,” said police spokesperson Eric Kiraithe. Makove said IRA will increase its budget for training police officers in 2012 on matters on insurance and fraud detection to ensure that every police station in the country has at least two police officers who are trained in insurance matters.

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Kenya seeks insurance fraud prosecution unit