Over the years, technical underwriters on engineering classes of business have become very scarce in the insurance industry in Kenya. Most underwriters are relying heavily on their respective reinsurers. Contractors ALL Risk is a type of business under the engineering class of business and there are various types of constructions taking place in the country including buildings, bridges and roads. The government on the other hand has embarked on massive road contractions in an effort to open up trade within the country and with our neighboring countries.

Based on this basis, AKI saw the need to bridge this gap by organizing seminars with the aim of educating underwriting and claims personnel within the industry on technical aspects of the engineering classes of business. In 2007, a seminar on Project insurance was organized at the Pan Afric Hotel, Nairobi. In 2008, another seminar on Machinery Breakdown where both underwriting and claims was covered took place at the same venue. Both seminars were very successful and informative. This year the seminar was on Contractors ALL Risks (CAR).

The seminar was held on 24th September 2009 at Intercontinental Hotel, Nairobi.The target group were underwriting and claims managers. The seminar was well attended with a total of 70 participants. The participants were taken through the underwriting aspects by Mr. Rajni Varia of ZEP-Re. Mr. Ton Everdink of Munich-Re took the participants through the claims procedures. Relevant case studies were presented.

More seminars targeting this type of business will be organized in the future with the next one proposed for Mombasa in the first quarter of 2010.