Five insurance firms to give police cover

What you need to know:

  • Officers in higher ranks are allowed to access the best hospitals but are restricted to Sh800,000 cover for inpatient treatment.
  • Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo and his two deputies, Samuel Arachi (Administration Police) and Grace Kaindi (Kenya Police), have a different cover offered by Heritage Insurance company.
  • The scheme was backdated to July, meaning benefits of officers who have either died or injured in the line of duty since then would be remitted this month.

A consortium of up to five companies will provide medical insurance for police in a fresh bid to give officers access to private hospitals in the country.

The decision to allow groups of companies to compete for the tender was made following meetings between Interior ministry officials, insurers and senior police officers.

The groups are scheduled to start bidding this week.

Once in place, the insurance scheme will cover a 107,000-strong workforce from the National Police Service and the Kenya Prisons Service.

It will also include their spouses and children.

An earlier arrangement in July fell apart because none of the local insurance firms expressed willingness to undertake the scheme by itself, which at that time was contrary to tender requirements.

At present, officers and their families are covered under the National Hospital Insurance Fund but the government is keen to upgrade and bring in a private company.

The current deal ensures that officers from the rank of Constable to Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police have access to a comprehensive cover but are limited to visiting selected health facilities, with a bias to government-owned ones.

HIGHER RANKS

Officers in higher ranks are allowed to access the best hospitals but are restricted to Sh800,000 cover for inpatient treatment.

Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo and his two deputies, Samuel Arachi (Administration Police) and Grace Kaindi (Kenya Police), have a different cover offered by Heritage Insurance company.

They will get benefits of up to Sh200 million for inpatient service and Sh150,000 for outpatient treatment.

They are covered under a different scheme administered by the National Police Service Commission through Heritage Insurance company.

The top police officers are covered by the virtue that they sit at the NSPC as commissioners.

The NPSC entered into a contract with Heritage Insurance Company, which in turn contracted hospitals, clinics and medical specialists across Kenya.

Senior officers privy to the negotiations said the massive insurance scheme would be rolled out in less than two months.

The Nation also learnt that a cheque in favour of Pioneer Insurance, the other company contracted in August to provide Life Insurance cover for officers, was drawn on Monday.

The scheme was backdated to July, meaning benefits of officers who have either died or injured in the line of duty since then would be remitted this month.

These initiatives are part of ongoing police reforms are designed to boost morale of officers.

They are four years late because they were envisioned in the Ransley report, the police reforms blueprint that was adopted by the government in 2009.

It said: “The nature of policing duties exposes them to all manner of risks. The risks have increased phenomenally due to the merging challenges in maintaining safety and security. In view of the inadequacy of life insurance cover, the officers have been rendered vulnerable to risks in the course of their duty.”