Top medical insurers are working to form a consortium to provide compulsory medical cover for millions of foreigners visiting Kenya.
The consortium will include top medical insurers such as Jubilee Health, Old Mutual, AAR Insurance, CIC General and APA General, coming months after the government cancelled a controversial multibillion-shilling health insurance cover tender that had breached procurement laws.
The State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services, which had issued a restricted tender for inbound health insurance cover that is supposed to underwrite all foreigners visiting Kenya, is yet to issue a new one.
However, insurers are organising themselves into a consortium in the hope of winning this lucrative business in a country where the number of international visitors has been growing, rising by 14.8 percent to 2.39 million in 2024.
The Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI) chief executive Tom Gichuhi said that while the industry is working on a common product to be put on the digital platform called Pata Bima, major health insurers have come up with a product and received clearance from the Insurance Regulatory Authority.
“If government readvertises the tender, I believe these companies are likely to tender as a consortium. This is part of the preparation to ensure the industry is not locked out of this business,” said Mr Gichuhi in an interview.
AAR Insurance Kenya CEO Justine Kosgei confirmed the development, noting that the insurer is among those pushing for a consortium as a proactive step ahead of anticipated new guidelines on the travel health cover tender.
“We don’t know how a new tender will look like. Many of us have proposed a consortium so that we go in as one. The industry is now moving towards collaboration and not competition,” said Mr Kosgei.
The previous tender included several onerous requirements, such as the condition that the bidders be backed by reinsurers rated in the top five by global rating agencies like Standard & Poor’s or AM Best, partner with third party administrators and have a contract with a tier I international bank that will be collecting premiums.
Kenya introduced compulsory medical cover for foreigners travelling to the country for a short stay under the Social Health Insurance Act 2024 and also made it compulsory for all locals to be registered for healthcare services.
AKI has already come up with a standard certificate that will be issued, which is verifiable digitally. By January this year, it was also in the final stages of developing a portal through which the visitors could apply for travel insurance.
The Immigration and Social Services Principal Secretary Julius Bitok cancelled the initial travel health insurance tender on January 17, 2025, days after the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority warned that tender had violated several procurement regulations and “cannot be progressed to its logical conclusion.”
