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{
    "id": 1520683,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1520683/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 277,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Molo, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kuria Kimani",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Hon. Temporary Speaker, I beg to move: THAT, the Insurance Professionals Bill, (National Assembly Bill No.13 of 2024), be now read a Second Time. May I take Members down the history of insurance? The catastrophe called the Great Fire of London of 1666 highlighted the need to have insurance. That is when entities started thinking about fire insurance. Matters of insurance have grown over the years. We saw the introduction of life insurance, as we call it now, during the 18th century. The industry progressed so well that we are now talking about some very new and serious insurance innovations. Examples include on-demand insurance, user-based insurance, parametric insurance that is also called index-based insurance; micro insurance, bended insurance, AI- driven claims processing and payments, as well as things like block chain and smart contracts. Those are some of the developments that have been witnessed in the insurance sector since 1966. However, despite the insurance sector contributing about 2 per cent of our GDP, professionals in the insurance sector have remained unregulated. That is unlike other professionals. You have to get a practice certificate from the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) for you to practise as an accountant. You need to get a practice certificate from the Law Society of Kenya to practise as a lawyer. To practise as a doctor, you need to get a practice licence from the doctors’ body. For you to be a teacher, you need to get a licence from the Teachers Service Commission. What have we seen in the insurance sector? There has not been any recognition or requirement of regulation of the professionals operating within the insurance sector. This could be the reason as to why penetration of insurance in Kenya remains at around 2 per cent only. That is way less than the global average of about 8 per cent. It is way lower than in some of the economies in the region we compete with. South Africa’s insurance penetration is between 4 and 5 per cent. Someone may mess up your claim when you take insurance products and when it comes to the claim period, you are not paid. Some people give fraudulent premiums. They defraud clients and move to different companies to do the same. Lack of a way of tracing those professionals, as it exists in other professions, has resulted in the low penetration levels of the insurance sector in Kenya. It is for this reason that the Department Committee on Finance and National Planning came up with the Insurance Professionals Bill. The Bill seeks to establish the Insurance Institute of Kenya, which will be the overall professional organ for insurance professionals. The institute shall regulate professional conduct and maintain a level of standards and services rendered by insurance professionals that are registered with the institute as provided for in this Bill. The Bill will help to promote recognition of insurance professionals not just in Kenya, but also across East Africa and the region. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}