Kenya Insights

Tag: Jubilee insurance company

  • How Bangled KENYATTA NATIONAL HOSPITAL PROCUREMENT OF INSURANCE SERVICES Bid Rigging Unfolded and How PPRA Is Protecting Jubilee Insurance In Coverup.

    How Bangled KENYATTA NATIONAL HOSPITAL PROCUREMENT OF INSURANCE SERVICES Bid Rigging Unfolded and How PPRA Is Protecting Jubilee Insurance In Coverup.

    More information from our source – the whistleblower continues to unfold the rot in the Procurement industry with the help of PPRA-PPRB the procurement authorities. The corrupt Jubilee Insurance Co / Jubilee Allianz General Insurance Co king of kickbacks colluding with the authorities to win tenders through rigging – birds of the same feathers flocking together.

    “BID RIGGING AND CORRUPTION IN KENYATTA NATIONAL HOSPITAL PROCUREMENT OF INSURANCE UNDERWRITING SERVICES – KNH/T/46/2021-2022

    Good morning,

    We plead for your keen attention on the matter referenced. KNH advertised for the above tender that closed on 8/6/2021. We will clearly outline how the whole scandal chronologically unfolded. All the information given here is the actual status on the ground and is verified and verifiable. We again state that we have and will continue to observe professionalism, ethics and objectivity throughout the matter.

    PRIOR TO ADVERTISEMENT

    KNH had running contracts with CIC Life Assurance Ltd for Group Life Cover. The same tender included other classes of general insurance which were awarded to other companies. The tender was advertised in 2019 and awarded with no challenges. Contracts were to run for two yertas: 201-2020 and 2020-2021, commencement date being April 2019 and end date March 2021. We have however established that, just before the end of the contracts, KNH extended the contracts by three months from March 2021 to June 2021. According to the Professional Opinion seen by us that was recommended to the CEO by the Head of Procurement for approval signed in March 2021, justification for the three months extension was so as to align the contract period with the financial year. KNH has several contracts for adverse services including security, cleaning, gardening services among others whose start and end dates are not aligned with the financial year shenanigan. How these insurance services contracts were the only one sensitive to the financial year period cannot be explained.

    After the extension, the journey of preparing for advertisement of the new tender began. Our investigations have revealed that the new items in question were introduced by people in the insurance industry who were involved in preparation of the tender document. Two underwriters and an agent who exposed the KNH staff without knowing convinced KNH to include the items as mandatory in the tender document. One tender document was prepared combining both Group Life business and the general business.

    Group Life business is where the turpitude and depravity is. Unknowingly, KNH was lured into adopting the scandalous criteria and blindly putting  the same in the tender document. The criteria demanded that the underwriter must have made 100Million profit for the last three years and Gross premium of 500M for the year 2020 as per IRA reports. When the IRA reports are analysed, only one company Jubilee Life Assurance Limited meets the two criteria for Life business. This was done intentionally so as to lock all other life business underwriters. See the analysis below:

    The figures are derived from the IRA reports as was required in the tender document.

    Insurance Co. 2020 2019 2018
    APA Life Assurance Company 115,843, 000 28,684, 000 (66,752, 000)
    ICEA Lion Life Assurance 774,360, 000 690,245, 000 600,295, 000
    Jubilee Insurance Company 1,197,880, 000 2,198,267, 000 1,408,505, 000
    Liberty Life Assurance Company 273,016, 000 478,613, 000 283,311, 000
    Sanlam Life Assurance 649,621, 000 – –
    Britam Life (2,207,207, 000) 4,213,789, 000 (960,370, 000)
    Old Mutual Life Assurance (346,154, 000) 175,825, 000 480,732, 000
    Pioneer Assurance Company (60,645, 000) 142,288, 000 (35,258, 000)
    UAP Life Assurance Company (532,751, 000) 219,708, 000 251,120, 000

     

    According to the above analysis, only three (3) Life underwriters will have made profits for the three years required and will pass criteria number 12. These are: Jubilee Insurance Company, Liberty Life Assurance Company and ICEA Lion Life Assurance. Criteria no. 13 for life underwriters required that the life underwriter should have gross premiums of Kshs. 500Million. Analysis of the three (3) underwriters who pass criteria no. 12 have the following Gross premiums indicated against their names:

    names:

    Insurance Co. Gross underwritten premiums
    Jubilee Insurance Company 704,881, 000
    Liberty Life Assurance Company 376,687,000
    ICEA Lion Life Assurance 326,242,000

     

    Going by the analysis given above, it’s worth noting that only Jubilee Insurance Company can meet the two mandatory requirements in the market. It’s in the same that we conclude that the tender document was customized to ONLY allow Jubilee Insurance Company and no other company whatsoever to qualify for the life business. This is despite the fact that Kenya has close to thirty (30) underwriters registered for Life Business.

    AFTER ADVERTISEMENT

    Several insurance companies had noticed the presence of the malicious criteria in the tender document. The companies went ahead and made enquiries requesting for revision of the mandatory requirement that formed the preliminary evaluation criteria. The companies include: Britam, Liberty, Metropolitan Canon, Kenindia and Sanlam. KNH ignored all the queries and concerns raised and never responded to any of them. They were quickly printed by the office of the Director Supply Chain Management and deleted from the email, probably assuming that the same will be deleted from the senders’ emails. Other stakeholders including agents also complained of the criteria. No response was given at all but rather promised to deal with the consequences irrespectively. Reasons why the same were included in the tender document have never been given upto now. There’s no basis at all for the profitability criteria and neither the procurement laws nor insurance nor Public Finance laws support the same. It’s therefore illegal in its mentioning.

    Section 55 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 on eligibility to bid states that a person is eligible to bid for a contract in procurement   only if the person satisfies the following criteria:

      (a) the person has the legal capacity to enter into a contract for procurement or asset disposal; (b) the person is not insolvent, in receivership, bankrupt or in the process of being wound up; (c) the person, if a member of a regulated profession, has satisfied all the professional requirements; (d) the procuring entity is not precluded from entering into the contract with the person under section 38 of this Act; (e) the person and his or her sub-contractor, if any, is not debarred from participating in procurement proceedings under Part XI of this Act;  (f) the person has fulfilled tax obligations; (g) the person has not been convicted of corrupt or fraudulent practices; and (h) is not guilty of any serious violation of fair employment laws and practices. 

    We were not able to trace where profitability lies in the above.

    TENDER CLOSING

    During tender closing/ opening, it was noted that one bidder, Geminia Insurance Limited submitted one composite document meaning that the financials attached in the tender document were for the composite company and not for the subsidiary company. All the other bidders separated the life business financials from general financials and submitted the bid documents separately. For instance, Jubilee Life Assurance Ltd submitted a separate bid from Jubilee General Insurance Ltd.

    TENDER EVALUATION

    DURING TENDER EVALUATION, THE COMMITTEE NOTICED THAT THERE WERE ISSUES IN THE TENDER DOCUMENT. They immediately wrote to the office of the Head of Procurement requesting for clarification and professional advice on how to manoeuvre with the evaluation. The issues raised were:

    1. That the criteria on 100Million profitability for the year 2020 was not objective but rather subjective since, under Life business, only one bidder passed and therefore making it not competitive, which would mean that more stable and competitive bidders were locked out of the tender.
    2. The issue of Geminia Insurance who submitted composite financials. The head of procurement was requested to advise on how the bidder would be evaluated among others.
    3. The tender document requested for Gross Premium. How to calculate the gross premium was given in the tender document and therefore the item was ambiguous.

    Instead of officially responding to the tender evaluation queries, the management influenced the committee to ignore the issues raised and proceed to award to the already pre determined awardees. The report was rushingly done, forwarded after working hours, professional opinion done at the same time and approved at night of the same day when all other staff had left the hospital so as to leave the other staff unaware of what was happening.

    During evaluation, we contacted KNH in effort to plead for a response but they continually ignored our concerns. At one point before the tender closed, when an underwriter visited the procurement offices, he was kept waiting for five hours and later gave up and left.

    AFTER AWARD

    We made several complaints to both KNH and PPRA. None was responded to. We realized that KNH had promised both ther agent involved and the bidders in question that they would control the situation and not bother with the complaints. CIC Life Assurance Ltd challenged the procurement process at PPRA on 24th June 2021 exactly ten days after the tender award. KNH signed the letters of award on 14th June 2021. PPRA has never responded to the issues raised . We made several complaints subsequently but both parties played dumb. Public offices are put in place for a purpose and public officers should conduct their duties ethically and professionally.

    In an effort to water down the issues raised and counter our complaints as their way of cooling down the heat, KNH management and the agent who choreographed the scandal agreed to form a pseudo mail account and masquerade as a concerned underwriter and purport that we are following up on the same because we are paid to do to so and that our concerns are baseless and aims at tainting the name of the hospital. They also negotiated with PPRA and requested PPRA to block all emails coming from us.

    The email was created on 5th July 2021: [email protected].  This is the email used to counter our complaints and arrogantly respond to us, whose responses are equivocal and  scanty hogwash.

    This has prompted our investigations to go a notch higher and we can now authoritatively report that google gurus are on it. Preliminary investigations have unearthed that, according to google coordinate protocols, the email address used i.e [email protected]was registered with this safari.comnumber, 0722***585 

    This number after investigations belongs to a kenyan in the insurance industry who is a registered agent,  one that we’ve  constantly mentioned to be the choreographer and mastermind of the scandal and is involved in several others in the government including The Youth Fund that previously led to the dismissal of the former head of procurement. The number is also traced with some KNH officers in sports clubs, parking lots and some residential places before, during and after the tender. We however note that the parties have now opted to communicate via whatsapp in fear of being tracked.

    We are in the assignment of getting more information and profiles of the parties involved and will be back with more information. We won’t expose all the details at this stage.

    We request that you take the matter seriously so as to stop the impunity and scam in KNH and the insurance industry.

    Regards.

     

    On Thu, 1 Jul 2021 at 18:16,
    To Director,
    Public Procurement Regulatory Authority
    Attention: PPRB
    Good evening,
    We wish to come to you once again in regards to the same subject matter. All the issues raised in our previous correspondences have never been addressed by the procuring entity and no response whatsoever has ever been given to us. We feel that this is impunity and lack of respect to stakeholders and the state at large.
    Kindly note that we raised the issues way before the tender closed. It’s now three (3) weeks plus and still counting. It’s worth noting that the main issue was and still is the criteria that was maliciously introduced in the tender documentby KNH (Kenyatta National Hospital) for the tender for Procurement of Insurance Underwriting Services, KNH/T/46/2021-2022. The criteria read “The underwriter must have a gross profit of 100million each year for the last 3 years (2020, 2019 & 2018) as per IrA reports.
    We have previously indicated that the same was introduced after a meeting that the KNH bosses had with senior officers in Jubilee Life assurance Ltd who were introduced to each other by an insurance agent (who is related to the Head of Procurement in KNH and come from the same place)and have previously fixed several deals together according to the agent), and who lured them into introducing the criteria so as to knock out all other bidders in Life underwriting services and only pave way for Jubilee Life assurance Ltd who would later win the said tender. We will not mention names for now.
    We requested KNH to provide the legal basis that supports this criteria and upto now they have never responded. They ignored all our concerns and never issued any addendum, but went ahead and awarded the tender. All the queries  went unanswered.The general definition of Gross Premium is “The revenue of a company after it accounts for what had to be paid out to return that revenue, meaning it is the amount of money actually earned. How to calculate gross profit: Gross Profit = Total Revenue – Total Cost. IRA reports only provide for Profit before tax and profit after tax. How this issue was treated in the tender evaluation remains a mystery.
    It’s in the public domain that KNH bosses have assured the agent and the underwriter who was awarded the Life Insurance business that they will handle PPRB staff and that no complaint will be successful. As of now, we are aware that CIC Life Assurance Co. Ltd  have already challenged the procurement process with PPRA/Public Procurement Review Board (PPRB) and we are equally aware that KNH bosses who have their cuts already negotiated and assured are working day and night to influence the decision of the Review board, and that they are rushing to sign the contracts so that payment can be done urgently even as complaints are put every day.
    We kindly request for your urgent action so as to end the impunity and outright corruption.
    Regards,
    On Sun, 27 Jun 2021 at 20:45,
    Attention
    DIRECTOR,
    PPRA & PPRB

    We report to you the above subject matter whereby  KNH (Kenyatta National Hospital) advertised for Procurement of Insurance Underwriting Services, KNH/T/46/2021-2022 on 27th May 2021 that closed on 08/06/2021. We noted that two items in the tender document and specifically the qualifying threshold for Life underwriting business (page 24 of the tender document) were intentionally introduced in the tender document for this year so as to only allow one underwriter, who is the only one who meets the threshold to qualify for the tender. The items are:

    1. Preliminary criteria no. 12 , The underwriter must have a gross profit of 100million each year for the last 3 years (2020, 2019 & 2018) and,
    2. Preliminary criteria no. 13 life underwriters must have gross premiums of Kshs. 500Million for the year 2020.
    The item of profitability coupled with Gross premium of Kshs. 500 Million were put as mandatory in the tender document to lock out all other Life business underwriters and only allow Jubilee Life assurance Ltd win the tender.
    Section 55 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 on eligibility to bid states that a person is eligible to bid for a contract in procurement   only if the person satisfies the following criteria:
      (a) the person has the legal capacity to enter into a contract for procurement or asset disposal; (b) the person is not insolvent, in receivership, bankrupt or in the process of being wound up; (c) the person, if a member of a regulated profession, has satisfied all the professional requirements; (d) the procuring entity is not precluded from entering into the contract with the person under section 38 of this Act; (e) the person and his or her sub-contractor, if any, is not debarred from participating in procurement proceedings under Part XI of this Act;  (f) the person has fulfilled tax obligations; (g) the person has not been convicted of corrupt or fraudulent practices; and (h) is not guilty of any serious violation of fair employment laws and practices. 
    As we have previously indicated, these two items in question were introduced by an agent in agreement with the underwriter who convinced KNH bosses after discussing their share.The same agent is lying to  unsuspecting accounting officers and Heads of Procurement who seem not to properly understand the insurance business and at times, misadvising them on matters insurance which later backfires and leaves them in serious problems. The Fact of the matter is that the items are unlawful and contravene the provisions of all the procurement, public finance and insurance laws. Eligibility of tenders is clearly and precisely outlined in the above mentioned section 55 of the procurement Act.
    We would also want to bring to your attention that the same issues were raised by the KNH Tender Evaluation Committee who noticed the weirdness of their inclusion into the tender document. The committee would immediately write to the Head of Procurement requesting for guidance on how to handle them since they were very subjective and locked out all the other bidders in the Life business.
    The issues raised by the evaluation committee were not responded to but instead the committee was silenced and assured of their share. Other members of the committee who tried to enquire further were intimidated and blackmailed.
    It’s also worth noting that we, and other insurance stakeholders raised these issues way before the tender closed. Underwriters, also, some of whom participated and others who chose not to participate in the tender, also raised issues both in soft and in print. All those issues and queries raised were ignored and went unanswered. Negligence and lack of professionalism at the highest.
    As at now, the tender has already been awarded and KNH chose to communicate to all other bidders who participated and leave out the current service provider so that they may NOT know the results and therefore fail to challenge the procurement process with the Procurement Review Board: the window of which expires tomorrow 28/06/2021.
    The issues of negligence highlighted are so unfortunate and we call upon the authority and all other regulatory bodies to take the matter seriously and deal with the scam once and for all.
    Thank you in advance for your consideration.
    Regards,”
  • Compromised PPRA Continues To Give a Deaf Ear Despite Complaints over Unfair Tender won by Jubilee Life Assurance Company.

    Compromised PPRA Continues To Give a Deaf Ear Despite Complaints over Unfair Tender won by Jubilee Life Assurance Company.

    If you can remember, on record when terms and conditions was regulated to favor Minet to kick out NHIF and other insurance firms from TSC Medical scheme, the normalcy is repeating itself in the recent KNH PROCUREMENT OF INSURANCE UNDERWRITING SERVICES KNH/T/46/2021-2022 where terms and conditions were changed out from the cloud and that only left one candidate qualified. 

    Jubilee Insurance now Jubilee Allianz General Insurance Ltd have become the  corrupt dominant bully in the industry boasting of smuggled huge annual returns on corrupt deals. Jubilee Insurance is known for the dirty game of kickbacks in every tendering process they engage in.

    Their contravention of Section 44 of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act which prohibits an individual from receiving or soliciting or agreeing to receiving or soliciting a benefit borne out of a bidding exercise has always been their daily bread and contravention of Section 46 of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act which cautions against a person using his office to improperly confer a benefit on himself or anyone else; Section 176 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act which requires a person not to unduly influence or exert pressure on any member of an opening committee evaluation committee or on any employee or agent of a procuring entity to take a particular action which favours or tends to favour a particular tenderer, neither to inappropriately influence tender evaluations and not to commit a fraudulent act and finally Section 204B of the Insurance Act which prohibits a licensed person from knowingly and willfully assisting, conspiring with, or urges any person to violate the law or for any person who due to such assistance, conspiracy or urging by the said person, knowingly or willfully benefits from the proceeds derived from the use of fraud — is Jubilee’s wine they drink.

    In 2019, tender scandal for Provision of Medical Insurance Cover For Staff (KCAA-019-2019-2020) In a letter dated 22nd November, 2019, adressed to the Manding Dorector of KCAA Gilbert Kibe, copied to Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA), Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Office of the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Ethics & Anti- Corruption Commission (EACC), Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPOA), and Ministry of Transport.

    “It has come to our attention that the procurement process on the referenced tender is a mockery of the bona fide gesture on the part of the majority of the bidders who diligently go about their businesses justly and in accordance with the laws of this land. More disturbing is the fact that the process has been under the supervision of one of the bidders thus further camouflaged by guising as an innocent participant in the process, whilst in cahoots with members of staff at the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority with the intention, will or craft to lure other participants and the general public that the same is a free and fair process.

    We are at pains to understand why the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority members of staff would elect to ignore the principles of our Constitution as espoused under Article 10 of the Constitution on good governance, integrity, transparency and accountability. Prior to the release of the tender document, Mr. Urbanus Muthama, an insurance agent affiliated to Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya Limited, assisted in the drafting and finalization of the mandatory requirements listed on the published tender document.

    Resultantly, the tender document suits the interests of Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya, more particular as set out under requirement No. 13 of the Mandatory Requirements listed on the tender document. It is noteworthy that currently, only Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya meets the threshold, hence no real bidding.

    The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority is an entity well bound by Article 73 of the Constitution which advances objectivity and impartiality in decision making, and in ensuring that decisions are not influenced by nepotism, favouritism, other improper motives or corrupt practices.

    In blatant disrespect to these provision of the law, a meeting was held in November, 2019 at Panari Hotel along Mombasa Road, attended by Kenya Civil Aviation Authority Human Resource Manager, Martin Kivui, representatives from Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya Limited and the insurance company’s agent, Mr. Urbanus Muthama, among others. The subject of the meeting was proposition of a ‘kick-back’ amounting to Kshs. 48’000’000/- to Kenya Civil Aviation Authority officials should the tender be awarded to Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya Limited.”

    Recently following Kenya Insights expose of Jubilee’s corrupt dealings, the recently awarded to them after bangling the process, this time won’t be an easy ride. 

    From documents seen following the bangled KNH PROCUREMENT OF INSURANCE UNDERWRITING SERVICES KNH/T/46/2021-2022 which PPRA the mandated authority has given deaf year to the complaints of the participants over unfair play, – it is such a pitty how corruption is being normalised in these tenderpreneual processes where kings of kickbacks get the lions share at the expense of sobriety and transparency in the market.

    The KNH tender was divided into two businesses: Life business and general business with Life business being the rigged and customised for Jubilee Life Assurance Company. The tender was awarded on 14th June 2021.

    Participation was as follows

    1)GA INSURANCE CO LTD-General category

    2)GEMINIA INSURANCE CO. LTD-Both General and life categories

    3)UAP GENERAL LTD-General category

    4)JUBILEE GENERAL LTD-General category

    5)CIC GENERAL LTD-General category

    6)HERITAGE INSURANCE LTD-General category

    7)TRIDENT INSURANCE LTD-General category

    8)APA GENERAL INSURANCE LTD-General category

    9)JUBILEE LIFE LTD-Life category

    10)CIC LIFE LTD-Life category

    11)BRITAM LIFE LTD-Life category

    12)KENYA ALLIANCE-General category

    13)LIBERTY INSURANCE LTD-Life category. 

    After evaluation the tender was awarded to five underwriters lowest per each class

    1)GEMINIA-WON FIRE

    2)GA INSURANCE-WON GPA/WIBA

    3)UAP GENERAL-WON MOTOR VEHICLE

    4)JUBILEE LIFE-WON GROUP LIFE

    5)HERITAGE-WON MONEY,PUBLIC LIABILITY,MACHINERY BREAKDOWN.

    However, one of the concerned underwriter in an email seen tries to point fingers at the whistle blower and tries to downplay the bigger picture, their normalcy of interfering with tendering process forgetting they have history and it’s on record.

    Here’s the statement;

    “JUBILEE LIFE INSURANCE LTD KNH staff has been engaging Jubilee life since January but the underwriter was slow in confirming and declined 5 days to tender closing and participated directly after realising he was unnecessary for the following reasons

    1)They confirmed he is not in procurement as he had claimed he was in charge of the process

    2)He started asking for advance money

    3)He had no intelligence to offer

    -That is why he is dragging the Jubilee life name as the only bidder who won the tender and leaving the other four underwriter.

    -Jubilee life knows him very well and we can also give his name and people they are working with to any institution which needs him.

    -We also have CCTV footage of when he visited our offices.”

    It’s usual PR move as we all know. Even the guilty tries to play innocent. If the purported staff is out to tarnish their name then it’s a scenario where the cat is being let out of the bag.

    Jubilee Insurance/ Jubilee Allianz General Insurance Ltd lack the basic manners of ethical practice.

  • Rot Inside Jubilee Insurance Company (Jubilee Allianz General Insurance Limited).

    Rot Inside Jubilee Insurance Company (Jubilee Allianz General Insurance Limited).

    Corporate fraud has always been the biggest shareholder in driving force to corruption in Kenya. Jubilee Insurance  has spread its branches in all state parastatals and has been linked to a number of corporate fraud, that have been linked to the deputy president money-laundering sources that gases up his tanga tanga campaigns.

    Jubilee Insurance company now Jubilee Allianz General Insurance Co has been directly contacting state agencies in which tender documents are prepared in favour of them. Underwriters trying to compete with them walks on a thin rope and find it next to impossible to win the tenders because usually mandatory requirements and the scope highly favour them being that they’ve the financial muscle to manipulate the authorities.

    The market field hasn’t been equally leveled and Section 55 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 has always been contravened in their favour whenever they are involved.

    Most of those who understand the system, would agree with me that Corporates are the financiers of the law makers- Politicians, a mutual friendship to create connection to win state tenders, get state immunity and engage in money laundering business with the protection from the government machineries and push legislators whom they sponsor to ammend or table bills to make laws in their favor and dodge being summoned for questionings.

    The decision that was made to greenlight German corporate giant Allianz to acquire Jubilee holding’s shares was a snitchy move to try refurbish the sucking public image of Jubilee company.

    The transaction was Allianz’s second direct investment in the country, after establishing Allianz Insurance Company of Kenya Limited as a greenfield operation in 2014. Jubilee would continue to hold significant minority stakes in each of the operating subsidiaries, which are estimated to account for 12.3 per cent of Jubilee Holding’s consolidated net assets worth Shs1.1 trillion as at June 2021.

    Global insurer and asset managers–Allianz has become the majority shareholder in Jubilee General Insurance Limited in Kenya. This follows the acquisition of a 66 per cent stake in the company, representing 1,522,622 ordinary shares, from Jubilee Holdings Limited (JHL), East Africa’s largest insurance group who are retaining a 34 per cent shareholding in the company.

    The acquisition follows the execution of an agreement signed on September 29, 2020, whereby Allianz agreed to acquire the majority shareholding in the short-term general (property and casualty) insurance business operations of JHL in five countries in Africa. These are Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Mauritius.

    Its CEO

    Jubilee Holdings Limited (JHL) announced the appointment of Dr. Julius Kipng’etich as its Regional Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in January 2018 after intense lobbying, from the Deputy President William Ruto’s office.

    Having worked at the KWS, Julius Kipng’etich, together with some crooked KWS officials, manipulated the Ksh. 324 Million KWS Medical Insurance Tender that had to be reviewed by the  PPRA as it was marinated with fraud and would have brewed public outrage or authorities (EACC, DCI, AG) attention.

    There was a hearing on the KWS tender saga on the 10th of September 2019 by the PPRA but as usual it was just for formality.

    Julius Kipngetich, deputy president William Ruto’s ally has been heard on many occasions boasting of being immortal, considering his network with office of the Deputy President.

    Recently, KNH Procurement of Insurance Underwriting Services scandal.

    Ambrose Kinuthia, the founder of Infinity Insurance Agency blew a whistle over KNH tender process which Jubilee company participated and mysteriously won under unclear legal circumstances but clear illegal circumstances.

    He says, “It’s in the public domain that KNH bosses have assured the agent and the underwriter who was awarded the Life Insurance business that they will handle PPRB staff and that no complaint will be successful. As of now, we are aware that CIC Life Assurance Co. Ltd have already challenged the procurement process with PPRA/Public Procurement Review Board (PPRB) and we are equally aware that KNH bosses who have their cuts already negotiated and assured are working day and night to influence the decision of the Review board, and that they are rushing to sign the contracts so that payment can be done urgently even as complaints are put every day.”

    Two items in the tender document and specifically the qualifying threshold for Life underwriting business were deliberately introduced in the tender document for this year in a bid to favour one underwriter, who is Jubilee Insurance Company who meets the threshold to qualify for the tender.

    Mr Kinuthia had written the following email to Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPRB).

    “Attention

    DIRECTOR,

    PPRA & PPRB

    We report to you the above subject matter whereby KNH (Kenyatta National Hospital) advertised for Procurement of Insurance Underwriting Services, KNH/T/46/2021-2022 on 27th May 2021 that closed on 08/06/2021.

    We noted that two items in the tender document and specifically the qualifying threshold for Life underwriting business were intentionally introduced in the tender document for this year so as to only allow one underwriter, who is the only one who meets the threshold to qualify for the tender.

    The items are:

    1. Preliminary criteria no. 12 , The underwriter must have a gross profit of 100million each year for the last 3 years (2020, 2019 & 2018) and,

    2. Preliminary criteria no. 13 life underwriters must have gross premiums of Kshs. 500Million for the year 2020.

    The item of profitability coupled with Gross premium of Kshs. 500 Million were put as mandatory in the tender document to lock out all other Life business underwriters and only allow Jubilee Life assurance Ltd win the tender.

    Section 55 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 on eligibility to bid states that a person is eligible to bid for a contract in procurement   only if the person satisfies the following criteria:

    (a) the person has the legal capacity to enter into a contract for procurement or asset disposal; (b) the person is not insolvent, in receivership, bankrupt or in the process of being wound up; (c) the person, if a member of a regulated profession, has satisfied all the professional requirements; (d) the procuring entity is not precluded from entering into the contract with the person under section 38 of this Act; (e) the person and his or her sub-contractor, if any, is not debarred from participating in procurement proceedings under Part XI of this Act;  (f) the person has fulfilled tax obligations; (g) the person has not been convicted of corrupt or fraudulent practices; and (h) is not guilty of any serious violation of fair employment laws and practices. 

    The two are unlawful and contravene the provisions of all the procurement, public finance and insurance laws. Eligibility of tenders is clearly and precisely outlined in the above mentioned section 55 of the procurement Act.

    We would also want to bring to your attention that the same issues were raised by the KNH Tender Evaluation Committee who noticed the weirdness of their inclusion into the tender document. The committee would immediately write to the Head of Procurement requesting for guidance on how to handle them since they were very subjective and locked out all the other bidders in the Life business.

    The issues raised by the evaluation committee were not responded to but instead the committee was silenced and assured of their share. Other members of the committee who tried to enquire further were intimidated and blackmailed. It’s also worth noting that we, and other insurance stakeholders raised these issues way before the tender closed.

    Underwriters, also, some of whom participated and others who chose not to participate in the tender, also raised issues both in soft and in print. All those issues and queries raised were ignored and went unanswered. Negligence and lack of professionalism at the highest.

    As at now, the tender has already been awarded and KNH chose to communicate to all other bidders who participated and leave out the current service provider so that they may NOT know the results and therefore fail to challenge the procurement process with the Procurement Review Board: the window of which expires tomorrow 28/06/2021.

    The issues of negligence highlighted are so unfortunate and we call upon the authority and all other regulatory bodies to take the matter seriously and deal with the scam once and for all.

    Thank you in advance for your consideration.”