Kenya Sets Minimum Insurance for Inbound Travelers

The Ministry of Health has fixed the minimum benefits that mandatory travel health insurance must provide to visitors entering the country, filling in a detail regulators, insurers and travelers had waited on since the requirement was written into law.

• In a gazette notice, Cabinet Secretary for Health Aden Duale set out the floor for policies that non-Kenyan visitors must carry under the Social Health Insurance Act, 2023. 
• Under the schedule, a compliant policy must provide at least US$20,000 (about KSh2.6 million) for medical expenses and US$25,000 (about KSh3.2 million) for emergency medical transportation. 
• Prescribed medicines carry a sublimit of US$300 (about KSh 38,000), mental illness treatment US$1,000 (nearly KSh 130,000), and repatriation of mortal remains US$5,000 (about KSh 647,000). 

The notice further specifies that a policy's cumulative benefit cannot fall below US$50,000, or roughly KSh6.4 million, regardless of how the individual sublimits are structured. 

With the benefit floor now published, domestic insurers have the specification they need to design compliant products, and immigration and airline counterparts have a fixed benchmark against which travelers' coverage can be checked at the border.