The Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI) Membership received the service of fraud detection from a system provided by the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) on contractual basis. The system did not attain the desired results and as such the contract between CRB and AKI was terminated late 2003.

Failure of the system to deliver the expected outcomes made AKI go back to the drawing board to rethink the entire process. The Secretariat was mandated by the Board to source for another provider. The process was embarked on through the formation of a working group comprising underwriting, claims, and IT managers from the industry. The Secretariat liaised closely with the Motor Technical Committee. The working group members were drawn from eighteen member companies and worked with the Secretariat to evaluate the service providers who had forwarded proposals for provision of the service.

The Secretariat with the assistance of the group attempted to source for providers to carry out the development of the system but somewhere along the way it was felt that we did not have the technical capacity to develop systems specifications and procurement of a vendor. Based on this, the Secretariat was advised by the Secretariat Affairs and Investment Committee of AKI, which is one of the AKI Board Committees, to explore the option of engaging a consultant to carry out the process to avoid the pitfalls that had befallen the Association previously.

The insurance industry in totality as well as individual members stands to benefit from the successful implementation and operation of this project. Some of the benefits that can be realised include:-

1. Increased profitability for all the member companies. This will be achieved through:-
a. Detection and reduction of fraudulent claims. This will be achieved by members sharing information through a

central database.
b. Ability to authenticate all claims that are payable by members.
c. Increased transparency in the motor vehicle claims and underwriting practices

2. Have industry wide improved underwriting processes. This will be achieved through:-
a. Physical verification of motor vehicle details and condition.
b. Improved policy making based on up to date and relevant information.
c. Capture and share any declined business declined risk or cancelled policies etc.
d. Have standard templates to capture mandatory minimum underwriting information.
e. Capture and share information about claims lodged/ reported/ discovered and the various settlement status.

3. Have an information management policy that protects the sharing of client (personal) information.

4. Improved performance for member companies in terms of efficiency and effectiveness as the system proposes some

minimum level of computerisation for all insurance companies to encourage information sharing.

5. The insurance industry will increase its contribution to the countrys economy arising from the increased profitability to

be achieved by individual companies.

6.The system will provide a statistical hub to the industry through the information sharing. This will ease the burden on

AKI Members as the Secretariat will have the information at hand. The statistics would fall in categories such as:-
a. Stolen motor vehicle data
b. Salvage data
c. Written-off Motor Vehicle Data
d. Uninsured Motor Vehicles
e. Accidental claims
f. Underwriting data
7. The system will provide a link to other motor stakeholders in Kenya such as the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA),

Ministry of Transport, and the Police amongst other.

8. The insurance industry will increase its contribution to the country's economy arising from the increased profitability to

be achieved by individual companies.

7. Improved perception of the insurance industry which will be achieved through enabling issues such as faster claims

processing time arising from information being more readily available.

8. Recouping of investment through system usage. Once the system is fully operational, the Secretariat can use it to

generate income through levying of charges on enquiries received from various stakeholders.