New AI assessment tool validates motor vehicle damage in 15 minutes to settle accident claims in two hours. [iStock
Every time a Kenyan motorist files an insurance claim, the clock starts ticking, not toward a quick resolution, but toward five days of waiting, paperwork and uncertainty.
Behind the delay lies a deeper problem: a fraud crisis that costs the industry hundreds of millions of shillings every quarter and ultimately lands on the shoulders of every policyholder paying a premium.
Insurers rejected 22,364 claims worth Sh658.9 million in the first quarter of 2025, according to data from the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA).
A portion of the cases involved suspected fraud and improper documentation.
The problem runs deep. Industry estimates suggest roughly 30 per cent of motor insurance claims in Kenya are fraudulent, costing insurers between 8 per cent and 10 per cent of all claims paid in the motor class alone.
Those losses do not stay on insurers' balance sheets. They flow directly to honest policyholders through higher premiums, effectively making every Kenyan motorist pay a hidden fraud tax on their policy.
Motor vehicle accident claims and forgery together accounted for nearly two-thirds of all reported insurance fraud incidents in the first nine months of 2025, up from 36.4 per cent in the same period in 2024.
The methods are well-worn: manipulated photographs, inflated repair quotes, staged accidents and falsified documents. What has kept them alive is the five-day claims window, which gives bad actors enough time and enough paperwork gaps to work with.
Technology has been proposed as the answer for years, but the sector has been slow to move beyond digital portals and mobile apps.
Kenya's insurance penetration stands at around 2.3 per cent of GDP, below the global average, and industry surveys show that delayed and disputed claims remain one of the leading reasons Kenyans distrust and avoid insurance products altogether.
Fixing fraud is therefore not just a profitability issue. It is an access issue.
Britam General Insurance now says it has built a system capable of doing both at once.
The company has deployed an AI platform that settles motor claims within two hours, using three integrated models that validate image authenticity, detect damage severity and generate real-time repair cost estimates, targeting the exact loopholes that have made motor fraud so persistent.
The Britam AI Motor Assessment Service operates as a drive-through facility at Britam Centre in Nairobi.
Upon arrival, a customer's vehicle is photographed and assessed in 15 minutes. A digital claim form is sent directly to the customer's phone, eliminating paper documentation. Internal review takes 30 minutes, and settlement, by bank transfer, M-Pesa or a repair authority, follows within an hour.
"Today, five working days is not good enough for our customers. We have launched a capability that assesses accident vehicles using AI and pays the customer within two hours," said James Mbithi, Chief Executive Officer of Britam General Insurance.
Mbithi noted that the AI platform produces damage analysis beyond what a human assessor can detect, while generating data-backed assessments that reduce disputes between the insurer and policyholders.
The service was developed at BetaLab, Britam's internal innovation hub, and builds on a data framework the company has operated for over five years, tracking parts prices and informing assessor decisions.
Britam is not alone in turning to technology. The Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI), working with traffic police and the IRA, uncovered 44 cases of fraudulent motor insurance certificates across two regions in 2025 and has rolled out digitised motor certificates as part of wider verification efforts.
However, the industry's response has largely focused on catching fraud after the fact rather than preventing it at the point of assessment.
The IRA has also proposed new claims management guidelines requiring insurers to acknowledge claims within two working days and make settlement offers within seven days of receiving investigation reports, a timeline Britam's system now substantially undercuts.
Mbithi added that the company intends to scale the service to allow customers to initiate assessments at the scene of an accident.