Kenya · the rider-use brief
Name the ride before you insure the bike.
Build a rider-use briefA bike used for errands, deliveries or fare-paying passengers presents different risks. Before a price, write down who rides it, who or what it carries, and which losses you need the insurer to accept.
Owner-approved editorial edition · no quote, rider-data form or insurer handoff.
01 · Before asking for a price
Write a brief an underwriter can say yes or no to
Do not submit any of this to AfriPolicyCover. Use the list offline, then ask a verified insurer or licensed intermediary for a written response. A registration number alone cannot tell them whether the bike carries paying passengers or goods.
| Record | Write down privately | Ask the insurer to confirm |
|---|---|---|
| Bike and owner | Registration, engine size, value, logbook holder and finance interest. | Exact insured bike, valuation basis and interested party. |
| Riders | Regular and occasional riders, licence classes and experience. | Who may ride, any age or licence restrictions and added excess. |
| Actual use | Private errands, commuting, deliveries, fare-paying passengers, hire or fleet work. | The accepted use and certificate category, in writing. |
| People and goods | Whether passengers pay, and whether carried goods belong to you or a customer. | Passenger liability and whether goods-in-transit needs separate cover. |
| Bike loss | Collision, fire, theft, attached equipment, parking and locks. | Perils, security conditions, excess and total-loss basis. |
| Journey | Counties and any border crossing, night storage and repair route. | Territory, recovery, inspection and claim notice steps. |
02 · Law, contract and certificate
Road duty is not the same as whole-bike protection
Section 4 of Kenya’s Insurance (Motor Vehicle Third Party Risks) Act generally requires a policy or security for a motor vehicle used on a road; section 5 frames the required liability around death or bodily injury. A policy may also include third-party property damage, but do not treat its contractual limit as the statutory injury requirement. Legal Notice 92 of 2019 inserts motorcycles and three-wheelers used by fare-paying customers into the certificate rules. That change does not convert a private-use policy into boda boda cover.
Required road liability
Check the current certificate and the policy’s accepted rider and use. Statutory third-party injury is not own-bike repair or the rider’s personal-accident benefit.
Property and passenger terms
Read any third-party property limit and excess, and the precise liability treatment for a paying passenger. Neither is proved by a generic “third party” label.
Bike, rider and goods
Fire, theft, collision, rider injury and cargo losses require their own accepted sections or separate cover. “Comprehensive” does not settle each question.
Verify the certificate, then the wording. AKI’s May 2026 guidance describes *352# and Bima Yangu record checks. A valid record does not by itself confirm private, delivery or passenger use, benefit limits or a current issuer’s purchase-day authority.
03 · Insurer-owned evidence · baseline 10 October, additions 15 October 2026
Eleven descriptions are not eleven matched motorcycle policies
Ten legal insurers behind the eleven descriptions below appear in the IRA section-184 notice dated 30 March 2026 for a motor class. The notice is a dated class check, not purchase-day permission. These routes mix private, corporate, conditional add-on, EV and PSV enquiries. GA's standard motorcycle and Eco Drive pages are different product scopes from the same insurer; Britam's e-motorcycle eligibility is stated in its launch notice. A product description, website form or insurer name is not an accepted policy for your rider and use.
| Legal insurer · source | What the source establishes | Still unresolved |
|---|---|---|
| First Assurance Company Limited First Assurance company homepage · private | Social, domestic and pleasure use; comprehensive, third-party only and third-party fire-and-theft descriptions. | Commuting and work acceptance, sums and excess. Detached spare/accessory theft is restricted unless the whole motorcycle is stolen. |
| Madison General Insurance Kenya Limited Madison company homepage · private | Social, domestic and leisure wording with own-bike accident or theft, recovery and an optional personal-accident extension. | Exact rider and passenger terms, availability and price; direct HTTPS request timed out during this review. |
| The Kenyan Alliance Insurance Company Limited Kenyan Alliance company homepage · private | Private-use motorcycle description with own-damage/theft and third-party sections. | Direct request returned 403. The source’s passenger-injury parenthetical refers to private cars; it is not evidence of motorcycle passenger cover. |
| Takaful Insurance of Africa Limited Takaful Africa company homepage · eligibility enquiry | Current motor menu names motorcycles as eligible vehicles and describes comprehensive, fire-and-theft and third-party options. | Specific motorcycle use, excess, sum, contribution and issued wording. An older motorcycle-specific page now returns 404, so its old excess figures are not used here. |
| NCBA Insurance Company Limited NCBA company homepage · conditional | The page names comprehensive, fire-and-theft and third-party routes, and describes corporate or individual accommodation. | The same page says motorcycle is an add-on to an active private/commercial motor policy. Standalone eligibility is not established. |
| Mayfair Insurance Company Limited Mayfair company homepage · corporate | Corporate motorcycle page describes comprehensive, third-party only and fire-and-theft lanes. | Retail, delivery and passenger eligibility; attached versus detached accessories and theft conditions. |
| MUA Insurance (Kenya) Limited MUA company homepage · personal | Own-bike events, accessories while on the bike and third-party risks, with three cover levels named. | Permitted commercial use, rider restrictions, excess, valuation and any passenger benefit. |
| GA Insurance Limited GA Kenya company homepage · use enquiry | A motorcycle-specific page names accident, fire and theft of the bike, third-party liability and possible passenger, emergency-medical and recovery extras. | Private, delivery or PSV acceptance; whether each extra is selected; value, excess and rider-specific premium. Do not transfer a general motor-car quote to a motorcycle. |
| GA Insurance Limited GA Kenya company homepage · electric-bike enquiry | GA explicitly lists motorcycles in its EV vehicle range and names battery and charging-cable sections; a private charging station and cyber appear as extensions. | E-bike ownership and use, battery limit, selected extensions, approved repair, excess and quote. This is a second GA product description, not a second GA insurer. |
| Britam General Insurance Company (K) Limited Britam company homepage · private electric motorcycle | Britam explicitly says its Britam company homepage extends to privately used electric motorcycles. Its announcement calls Battery Protect an extension. | A bike-specific schedule, battery ownership, permitted rider and use, selected extension, excess, charging and recovery conditions. The car-oriented product page alone is not accepted bike cover. |
| Directline Assurance Company Limited Directline company homepage · PSV enquiry | The insurer-owned menu advertises “Bima Boda (PSV)” at KSh 500 per month. This displayed amount is not a matched rider-specific quote or issued certificate. | Cover level, accepted rider and passenger scope, full charges, term and excess. No application form or provider handoff is embedded here. |
Separate dated evidence: Insurer reference retained internally; current source unavailable. describes two- and three-wheelers, but it is a 2025-era PDF, not proof of a current retail offer. Trident’s motorcycle webpage was excluded from the verified-issuer set because the named legal entity did not match the March 2026 IRA notice. These signals do not bring the page to ten accepted comparable contracts.
Four journeys, four underwriting questions
Describe the work the motorcycle actually does
“Motorcycle” is only the machine. The policy decision changes when the same machine carries a passenger, makes deliveries, transports goods or is used for a business. A certificate that names the wrong use can create a claim problem even when the premium was paid.
Social, domestic and pleasure
Ask whether commuting, family errands and occasional travel fit the stated private use. Keep the logbook, identity and certificate consistent.
Goods and app work
Record deliveries, hours, territories, carried goods and whether another employer or platform controls the trip. Do not rely on private-use language for paid work.
Fare-paying boda boda
Check the certificate form and passenger-liability wording recognised by the Kenyan rules. Ask whether the insurer has accepted the PSV exposure.
Fleet, hire or training
Settle who owns the bike, who may ride it, where it is kept, how many units are involved and which inspection or security records are required.
Certificate and ownership checks
Match the paper to the bike before a loss
| Question | Evidence to keep | Why it changes the result |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the motorcycle? | Logbook, sale or finance documents and any ownership change. | The named insured must have an insurable interest; a finance holder may need to be noted. |
| Who rides it and for what work? | Licence class, rider permission and a plain description of each paid activity. | Private, delivery and passenger use can fall under different accepted risks and certificate forms. |
| What was issued? | Current certificate, schedule, payment receipt and verified claims contact. | An AKI record check shows certificate status, not every rider, use or benefit term. |
| Where is it kept? | Overnight location and lock, alarm or tracking proof where required. | Theft and recovery conditions can depend on security precautions and territorial limits. |
Feature comparison
Keep liability, the bike and the rider in separate lanes
First Assurance, Madison, Kenyan Alliance, Takaful, NCBA, Mayfair, MUA, GA and Britam publish different motorcycle or eligible-vehicle descriptions. The labels below organise questions; they do not imply that all nine accept the same use or provide the same benefit.
| Lane | Potential benefit | What to ask in writing |
|---|---|---|
| Third party only | Required road-injury liability and any contracted property liability. | Which rider, use, passengers, injury basis, property limit and excess are covered? |
| Third party, fire and theft | Third-party sections plus defined fire or theft of the insured bike. | Does attempted theft count; what locks, keys, report, value and excess apply? |
| Comprehensive | Own-bike accidental damage alongside accepted third-party liability. | Does the same declared use apply to own damage, recovery and authorised repair? |
| Rider personal accident | A separately stated injury or death benefit for an accepted person. | Who qualifies, for what event and limit? This is not bike repair, cargo or monthly income. |
| Goods in transit | A separate cargo contract may protect customer goods carried for delivery. | Whose goods, theft or damage event, route, custody and shipment limit are accepted? |
Worked loss · invented figures
Stress-test a KSh 185,000 motorcycle loss
Imagine a motorcycle valued at KSh 185,000, a KSh 15,000 excess, KSh 22,000 of documented accessories and a KSh 40,000 third-party property demand after a crash. These figures teach the order of questions; they are not a premium, valuation or settlement.
| Line | Fictional KSh | Question before relying on it |
|---|---|---|
| Own-bike value | 185,000 | Agreed value, sum insured or assessed market value—and after which deductions? |
| Policy excess | 15,000 | Fixed or percentage-based, and different for theft or young riders? |
| Accessories | 22,000 | Attached or detached, declared and subject to which limit? |
| Third-party property demand | 40,000 | A separate contractual liability question, not automatically the statutory injury minimum. |
Open evidence and common mistakes
The cheapest certificate can be the wrong protection
Open evidence gap
Source gap: eleven current insurer-owned motorcycle or motorcycle-eligible descriptions across ten legal insurers, plus a dated Pacis corporate catalogue, still establish zero complete accepted, comparable policies for a matched rider and use. The three additions include two EV enquiries, not three retail-private-bike approvals. There are no matched KSh premiums. This is why there is no ranking or buying route.
Common mistake
Buying private-use cover for a delivery or passenger bike, then assuming a third-party certificate will repair the motorcycle, insure carried goods or replace the rider's income.
Useful check
Keep photographs of the bike and its equipment, ownership and payment proof, then write the accepted rider, use, territory, limits and excess beside the policy number—offline.
When a crash or theft happens
Build a claim file before the details disappear
- 01
Protect people
Get medical help, make the scene safe and follow police or emergency instructions.
- 02
Record the scene
Keep photographs, location, time, witness details, other vehicle information and the certificate record.
- 03
Notify the issuer
Use the verified insurer route promptly; ask for a reference, notice deadline, approved repair or inspection step.
- 04
Preserve the proof
Keep the logbook, licence, schedule, payment and any delivery or passenger-use record. Send ID only through a verified channel when required.
- 05
Read the decision
Ask for written reasons and the calculation. If unresolved after the insurer response, use the IRA complaint portal.
Continue the Kenyan decision
Move to the risk that changes the contract
These are eight distinct private Kenya decisions, each with its own evidence state. None opens a quote, provider handoff or personal-data form.
Questions Kenyan riders should settle
Is third-party motorcycle insurance compulsory in Kenya?
Section 4 of the Motor Vehicle Third Party Risks Act generally requires a policy or security for road use. Section 5 addresses death or bodily injury liability. Confirm the current certificate, rider and accepted use with the legal insurer.
Is third-party property damage automatically part of the statutory minimum?
Do not assume it. Ask for the policy’s separate property-damage promise, limit and excess. The Act’s required section is framed around death or bodily injury.
Does a third-party certificate repair my motorcycle?
No. Own-bike accident, fire and theft need accepted cover sections and their own value, excess, security and repair terms.
Can private motorcycle cover be used for boda boda work?
Do not assume so. The 2019 certificate amendment recognises motorcycles carrying fare-paying customers, but an insurer still has to accept the actual passenger use and issue the correct documents.
Does a delivery rider need a separate policy for parcels?
Motorcycle insurance does not automatically cover goods carried for a customer. Ask whether the goods, owner, route, theft and damage are insured under a separate goods-in-transit arrangement.
Does a certificate check prove I have comprehensive cover?
No. AKI’s *352# and Bima Yangu routes help check certificate status, not whether collision, theft, rider injury or delivery use is accepted.
Are passengers and the rider automatically covered for injury?
No single answer applies. Statutory injury liability, the policy’s passenger wording and a rider personal-accident extension are different questions. Read the issued use and person clauses.
Are accessories automatically insured?
Not necessarily. First Assurance’s public page restricts detached spare/accessory theft unless the whole bike is stolen. Ask how each attached and detached item is treated on your schedule.
Can I buy NCBA motorcycle cover by itself?
Its public page says motorcycle can be added to an active private or commercial motor policy, although another section sounds broader. Ask NCBA for a written standalone-eligibility answer before relying on the page.
Is an old published motorcycle excess still current?
Do not assume so. Takaful’s older motorcycle-specific page now returns 404; this desk does not reuse those figures. Request today’s bike-specific excess schedule.
Which Kenyan motorcycle insurer is cheapest?
This edition cannot rank one. Directline’s advertised boda monthly amount has no matched rider, term or benefit basis; eleven mixed-lane descriptions and a dated corporate catalogue are not ten accepted comparable policies or matched KSh quotes.
Does EV cover automatically insure my e-bike battery and charger?
No automatic answer follows from a vehicle list. GA names motorcycles and battery/cable sections but lists a private charging station as an extension. Britam says its EV product reaches privately used electric motorcycles and calls Battery Protect an extension. Ask for the accepted e-bike, battery owner, selected equipment, limits, excess, charging risks and repair route in writing.
Will this page take my registration, licence or claim file?
No. It has no quote request, provider handoff, payment or personal-data collection. Give sensitive documents only through a channel verified with the legal insurer.