This archive report was first published on 3 July 2019.
On July 3, 2019, Insurance Crime detectives at the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) made a significant breakthrough in the fight against insurance claim fraud.
According to the IRA, the detectives had been investigating a suspicious claim lodged by a Nairobi businessman with Sanlam General Insurance.
The claim, worth Sh204 million, was lodged under the guise that Afroplast Industries in Thika had lost its manufacturing machines in a fire incident last year.
However, investigations revealed that the machines destroyed in the fire belonged to a different entity, Josmak Company Limited.
IFIU detective Peter Ewoi confirmed that the necessary files had been forwarded to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) for direction.
Sanlam Kenya Group CEO, Patrick Tumbo, welcomed the investigative breakthrough and stated that the firm had enhanced its internal fraud management systems to guard against growing cases of fraudulent claims.
“Fraud is an industry-wide problem that continues to reduce operational profit and erode shareholder returns, and we appreciate the support from IFIU,” Tumbo said.
Sanlam Kenya has also implemented stricter vetting of claims to weed out unscrupulous ones, which may slightly lengthen the period leading to settlement.
According to the IRA Insurance Industry Report for the period January – March 2019, 30 fraud cases were reported to the Insurance Fraud Investigation Unit (IFIU) in the first quarter of the year.
