Kenya has well-established insurance and banking sectors, both of which have demonstrated high levels of capacity through strong profit margins over time. There is high insurance penetration (compared to neighboring countries), sufficient levels of reinsurance capacity and expertise in-country and a ground-breaking innovative mobile money market.
Kenya represents an excellent opportunity to make targeted investments aimed at increasing disaster resilience among vulnerable population using market-mediated solutions. Links could be explored to integrate market-mediated insurance solutions into social safety net programs, such as the Hunger Safety Net Program. Coordination with broader Horn of Africa resilience efforts (such as those of the Global Alliance and Political Champions Group) could also be explored. A technical assistance program could be established by donors, looking to enable the government to develop mechanisms and establish frameworks to execute such mechanisms.
Property catastrophe insurance markets could also be stimulated. Insuring key public assets (of a given level of building standard) against catastrophe risk would create a market for private sector organizations, as well as demonstrate the viability of property catastrophe risk insurance in Kenya. Such a venture would ensure the critical mass is achieved for private sector insurance companies to invest and develop the market further, looking to compete and provide catastrophe insurance cover to other non-governmental organizations.