Kenya Re Group Managing Director Dr Hillary Wachinga speaks during the launch of the corporation’s International Life Reinsurance Operations at Reinsurance Plaza in Nairobi on February 26, 2025.
The Kenya Reinsurance Corporation (Kenya Re) has maintained a Sh839.94 million dividend payout despite its net profit dropping by 11.6 per cent to Sh3.92 billion in the financial year ended December 2025.
The Sh839.9 million is from a dividend payout of Sh0.15 per share, and comes even as net earnings for the financial year dropped from Sh4.43 billion posted in 2024. The latest performance marks another decline in net earnings from Sh4.93 billion in 2023.
The reinsurer said in a statement yesterday that the latest drop in profitability was due to under-performance in the company’s international treaty business and its operations in Zambia and Côte d’Ivoire.
The review period saw Kenya Re post insurance service result of Sh108.46 million compared with Sh2.94 billion in 2024. The insurance service result represents revenue minus expenses from core insurance activities.
Kenya Re’s insurance revenue fell 11 per cent to Sh12.58 billion from Sh14.15 billion in the period, when insurance service expenses and net expenses from reinsurance contracts rose 11.4 per cent to Sh12.47 billion from Sh11.2 billion.
“This is mainly due to stiff competition, domestication laws, upsurge in the cost of retro placements arising from hardened global rates of reinsurance and its suppressed credit rating score,” said the reinsurer.
Kenya Re had suspended managing director Hillary Wachinga for about two months.
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Net investment income grew by 41.3 per cent to Sh6.59 billion from Sh4.66 billion, helping soften the overall fall in net earnings. The growth in net investment income was supported by reduced net foreign exchange losses to Sh247.65 million from a Sh1.68 billion loss in the preceding period.
Excluding the narrowed forex losses, the investment income had come under pressure given the environment of falling interest rates, with the average yield having come to nine percent last year compared with 16 per cent in 2024.
The company said the overall performance “demonstrates resilience despite the governance issues it faced” last year.
The board of Kenya Re had suspended managing director Hillary Wachinga for about two months, triggering a legal dispute. The case was later withdrawn, paving the way for his reinstatement.
Dr Wachinga had moved to court on September 22, 2025, accusing Kenya Re of violating his constitutional rights through a disciplinary process that he said was “in bad faith” and risked violating his rights to “fair hearing, fair labour practices and fair administrative action.”
The reinsurer, which is 60 per cent owned by the Kenyan government, serves over 80 markets through its head office in Kenya as well as three subsidiaries in Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia, and Uganda.
Mid-October last year, global rating agency AM Best affirmed the credit ratings of Kenya Re, keeping the outlook stable even as it raised concerns over the reinsurer’s governance and risk management practices.
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