Kenya insurance industry adapting
The Kenya insurance industry is adapting, as it should, to the country’s circumstances. One result is that we are beginning to see more varied insurance packages then before.
Take for instance the new kidnapping insurance from AIG. With the recent spate of kidnappings in the country, this could not have come at a better time.
Lets see more of this kind of innovation from the Kenya insurance industry.
A short while ago I heard talk of an insurance package to cover drought. If this package exists, it needs to be publicized more among farmers and keepers of livestock.
What could be better for a farmer than to know that if his crop fails as a result of drought or his livestock die, he will be compensated and can start over in a better season.
Another kind of package I’d love to hear about is insurance for smokers. I’m really being quite serious. We smokers engage in this risky behavior all our lives, but it usually takes a long time to kill us.
Think about the premiums the Kenya insurance industry could collect from smokers, who are after all guaranteed that unless they quit the habit, it will kill them.
So let them engage in their habit and enjoy. At the end, how much can it cost to pay for smoking-related health expenses.
Speaking of health, poor health and where it eventually leads. We really need a funeral insurance to shore us over the death of a loved one. Everyone has experienced first hand the expenses that come with funerals.
A policy to cover these expenses would likely be quite welcome, not to mention a great help to those struggling to deal with loss. This is certainly not the time they want to be thinking about money as well.
Indulge me a while longer; I’m think an exam failure insurance package might be worthwhile as well. As our KCSE candidates sit their final exams, this would surely set their minds at rest.
The reality is, the exam is designed with failure in mind. There are simply not enough universities and colleges to accommodate them all, so we make an exam that ensures the majority will fail.
These poor kids need an insurance that will give them some options when they fail.
They could repeat the year in hope of doing better next time; they could start a business and be done with school, or they could take a holiday to recover from the torture of the exam.
