Standalone insurance regulator
KenyaInsurance Regulatory Authority
A dedicated supervisor at the heart of East Africa’s insurance economy.
01 / The institution
Insurance Regulatory Authority
Kenya’s Insurance Regulatory Authority oversees insurance and reinsurance, protects policyholders and supports market development. Its statutory mandate is separate from the central bank.
How it is structured
A statutory body corporate with its own Board of Directors and the Commissioner of Insurance as chief executive. Central-bank representation on its board does not make IRA a central-bank department.
Institutional source ↗What it oversees
Supervise insurance and reinsurance business, administer licensing and protect the interests of policyholders and beneficiaries.
Mandate source ↗The legal foundations
Mandate, written into law.
Establishing legislation and the rules governing insurance may be different instruments.
Establishing law & insurance framework
Insurance Act, Cap. 487 ↗
Section 3 establishes IRA; section 3A sets its functions; sections 3B and 3E provide for its board and Commissioner. The Authority provisions were introduced by Act No. 11 of 2006. Linked consolidation: 11 December 2023; later amendments have not been comprehensively checked.
02 / Market signals
The numbers, with context.
Figures retain the reporting period and accounting basis of their source. They are snapshots, not live indicators or directly comparable country rankings.
Gross direct premiums
Annual audited-return aggregate, up 16.81% from 2024. Long-term, general and microinsurance direct premiums reconcile to this total; inward reinsurance is excluded.
T1!O9:P10; T2!P9; T3!P23; APPENDIX 45!C12 ↗Insurance penetration
Gross direct premiums divided by GDP of KES 17,577.557bn. The workbook reports 2.6386%, compared with 2.4473% in 2024. This is not the share of people insured.
T1!P9, P11 and O15:P15 ↗Long-term direct premiums
Up 23.20% from 2024. Includes life assurance, annuities, pensions, deposit administration and the other long-term categories in IRA's table.
T2!P9:Q9 and P21:P29; amounts in KES thousands ↗General direct premiums
Up 9.93% from 2024. Medical premiums account for KES 93.20bn, or 41.35% of this general-insurance total; microinsurance is recorded separately.
T3!P10:P23 and Q23; medical share calculated as P21/P23 ↗Insurance penetration. The 2025 ratio is now verified from IRA's annual workbook. Coverage follows the submitted returns and exclusions described in the report notebook; direct premiums and insurance revenue are different measures.
03 / The report notebook
A dated view of the market.
What we noted in the regulator’s publications. Each entry separates the period covered, publication date when known, and our review date.
Year ended 31 December 2025 · annual audited returns
Annual Insurance Industry Statistics — 2025 ↗
The supplied IRA workbook was read, including its cover, reliance notes, trend tables and supporting premium and profitability appendices. Its recorded download origin identifies IRA's resource page. The file was supplied in September 2026 and its modification metadata says 3 September 2026; these are distinct from the 2025 reporting period. Publication date is unconfirmed because the cover contains an inconsistent July 2025 date. The official page remains access-limited, but the workbook itself has been reviewed.
Gross direct premiums · 2025
KES 463.80bnDirect premiums grew 16.81% over 2024 and represented 2.64% of GDP at current prices.
Long-term business grew faster
Long-term direct premiums increased 23.20%, compared with 9.93% for general insurance. Microinsurance recorded KES 2.13bn in direct premiums. Its separate KES 2.17bn gross-premium-income total includes inward reinsurance and is not interchangeable with direct premiums.
T2!P9:Q9; T3!P23:Q23; APPENDIX 45!C12:D12; T4!E13 ↗Medical leads general insurance
Medical direct premiums reached KES 93.20bn, up 22.30%. That represents 41.35% of general direct premiums, calculated from the workbook's class totals.
T3!P21:Q21 and P23; share calculated as P21/P23 ↗Premium growth did not translate into higher profit
Direct insurers reported KES 300.10bn in insurance revenue and KES 15.23bn in insurance service result. Profit for the year fell 13.66% to KES 21.67bn. These profitability measures are distinct from gross direct premiums and exclude the separately reported reinsurer results.
T6!F10:F13, F23:F25 and G25; amounts in KES thousands ↗Understand the coverage
IRA excludes Definite Assurance and Star Discover Micro Insurance for missing annual returns, and Corporate's general and life businesses, Trident and Kuscco following statutory management. It also notes an Old Mutual life-business transfer and the Sanlam/Jubilee Allianz general-insurance merger. Separate reconciliation issues in the workbook's combined claims-incurred and reinsurer summaries are recorded in our research notes; those figures are not used here.
Reliance & Limitations!B4; T1!P34 versus T3!P43 and APPENDIX 45!K12:L12; APPENDIX 2!D36:T36 ↗January–March 2026
Quarter-1 2026: Industry Release ↗
This quarterly release covers a later reporting period than the 2025 annual workbook above. IRA's indexed updates listed it in July 2026, but direct report access returned bot verification or retrieval errors, so it has not been read or summarised. The listing alone cannot establish whether a newer quarterly release exists.
Open the official publication listing ↗04 / Official contacts
Reach the institution.
Public institutional channels, checked 9 September 2026.
- General enquiries
- customercare@ira.go.keSource ↗
- Complaints
- complaints@ira.go.keSource ↗
- Telephone
- +254 20 499 6000Source ↗
- Mobile
- +254 719 047 000Source ↗
- Office
- Zep-Re Place, Longonot Road, Upper Hill, Nairobi; P.O. Box 43505-00100Source ↗
Research trail
Sources you can follow.
Independent editorial research by Insurers Global. Source dates do not certify that a law includes every subsequent amendment.
- IRA Annual Insurance Industry Statistics — 2025; supplied workbook read, official resource URL retained from download provenance ↗Checked
- Kenya Law: Insurance Act, Cap. 487 — consolidation of 11 December 2023 ↗Checked
- IRA public contacts — official indexed text ↗Checked
- IRA quarterly industry publications — report access limited ↗Checked
- IRA homepage — indexed July 2026 updates ↗Checked
- IRA: Q3 2025 performance news release — official indexed text ↗Checked
Country scenes are AI-generated illustrations made with OpenAI image tools, not official regulator photographs or endorsements. Quotations remain searchable text. Report figures and directory verification are maintained separately.