The board of Directline Assurance has confirmed Sammy Kanyi as the principal officer and the chief executive officer of the insurer of public service vehicles (PSV) after a nine-month stint serving in an acting capacity.
Mr Kanyi’s confirmation comes at a time when the insurer is roiled by shareholder wrangles, which saw the High Court gag businessman Samuel Kamau Macharia from running cautionary adverts.
Mr Macharia, popularly known as SK Macharia, is one of the shareholders of Directline.
“Mr Kanyi has served as the Acting Principal Officer at Directline since June 13, 2024, during which time he demonstrated strong leadership and a clear strategic vision for the company. We are confident in his ability to lead the organisation into its next phase of growth and success,” said Directline Chairperson Tom Odongo.
Mr Kanyi replaces Evans Nyagah who left in 2023 and joined Equity Bank. Mr Kanyi has been on the frontline in defending the insurer against Mr Macharia, who has said the current directors and shareholders of Directline are hijackers of his company.
However, Mr Macharia’s position has been refuted by the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA), which is listed as one of the respondents in the suit.
The IRA insists that the insurer is validly registered and must continue to pay claims arising from the Sh4.86 billion in premiums received from its 120,000 policyholders while selling new covers to willing clients.
Directline told court that Mr Macharia, who has a stake in the insurance firm through Royal Credit, had been running adverts asking the members of the public to stop doing business with the insurer.
While issuing a temporary restraining order, Justice Francis Gikonyo noted that the adverts had hurt Directline's financial position, which he described as a separate legal personality of its warring shareholders.
The judge noted that because the company offered insurance to the public, it had a “serious statutory and public venture under guarded by statutory.”
“Accordingly, the 1st defendant (SK Macharia), his agents, employees or servants or any other person is restrained from publishing, printing, distributing, airing or otherwise circulating the advertisements set out in…the affidavit by Sammy Kany,” said Gikonyo in a ruling issued on January.
