The first known case of coronavirus in Kenya was reported on the 13 March 2020. As of 19 April, ICMIF member CIC Insurance Group told us, there were 270 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection with 14 fatalities and 67 recoveries. The coming months of April and May, CIC Group says, will be very critical for Kenya as it is the period when the real effects of the virus will be known.

CIC’s response to the pandemic

While generally epidemics and pandemics do not form part of the benefits covered under the medical cover hence being a standard exclusion, CIC says the health and wellbeing of their customers is important. Upon consultation with the regulator Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA), the GM Medical Division Mr.  Kange MacDonald confirmed to customers that CIC shall support the government efforts in the diagnosis and treatment of Covid-19 in the designated government facilities.

However, he encourages customers to take all the necessary precaution and control measures to prevent further transmission and hence reduce the impact of the outbreak. CIC says it remains committed to offering seamless service and they continually align their daily operations with the government guidelines.

To this effect, CIC has made internal arrangements to manage all customer needs. Their call center will remain operational during this period in order to provide services to all their clients.  At a corporate level, CIC has partnered with local hospitals to provide medical services quite literally at the doorstep of their member policyholders. CIC Group is working with designated hospitals to arrange to deliver prescribed medicines to patients using couriers. Other medical providers and intermediaries are now taking to zoom to schedule training and Q&A sessions on Covid 19 to their members.

These measures are being taken to help reduce risk of transmission of the virus to the public, staff and patients.

The “CIC Dawa Mlangoni“ (Swahili name meaning Medicine at your doorstep) innovation has been introduced to allow CIC Insurance Group’s policyholders to have their prescription medication hand-delivered to their homes or at their office. The process requires an insured patient to send a photo of the prescription via email or WhatsApp. The prescription is reviewed in terms of the cost and to confirm the order and after delivery info is confirmed by the policyholder then they will receive their prescription within two hours and be able to pay using their member smart card.

The 5-5-5 Mutual Microinsurance Strategy in Kenya

The 5-5-5 team at CIC Group brainstormed ways it can contribute to the mitigation of the virus from spreading among the communities that are insured by CIC.

• An SMS communication was designed and shared with all livestock insurance customers urging them to stay safe while still emphasizing the importance of ensuring their livestock is covered.
• In addition to the above, CIC will design a simple skit/play that can be played in an application (App) which can be accessed to over 5000 dairy farmers spread across their nine regions.  The play will be designed to address precaution and ways to avoid contracting coronavirus but with a twist added to emphasize the importance of livestock insurance.
• In terms of addressing operational challenges, CIC Group held discussions with Rapid Vets who is the officially appointed veterinary partner to ensure that there is a resource available in the field to attend to valuations and ear tagging for farmers in regions where CIC’s major partners are present. 
• CIC has also empowered its CIC Veterinary Doctor with the necessary tools to undertake the postmortems as well as ensuring they have enough sanitizers, gloves and masks to protect themselves whilst out in the field.