Kenya Reinsurance Corporation (Kenya Re) is stepping up its expansion across East Africa with plans to open offices in Tanzania and Rwanda.
The reinsurer has invited bids to lease office space in Dar es Salaam and Kigali. It is also seeking a consultant to help set up a liaison office in Rwanda, a signal that the Kigali presence will need more groundwork before it becomes fully operational.
The tender for office space in Dar es Salaam closes on August 7, 2026. The Kigali leasing tender and the consultancy tender are both scheduled to close later the same month.
Kenya Re says interested firms can download the tender documents free of charge from its website and submit bids before the deadline. As the corporation put it in its notice, “Prospective bidders may download the tender documents from the Kenya Reinsurance Corporation Limited website free of charge.”
Bidders must register their details through Kenya Re’s procurement email to receive any clarifications or addenda issued during the tender process. Bid prices must include all applicable taxes and stay valid for 120 days after the closing date.
The corporation was direct about the consequences of foul play. “Any canvassing or giving of false information will lead to automatic disqualification. Tenders that are delivered after the submission deadline will be rejected.”
Why the Expansion Matters Now
Insurers and reinsurers across the region keep pushing into new markets, chasing demand tied to infrastructure spending, rising trade volumes and growing appetite for insurance cover. Kenya Re’s move into Tanzania and Rwanda fits that pattern, and it lands at a moment when the company can point to real financial momentum at home.
Inside Kenya Re’s 2025 Financial Performance
Kenya Re closed the 2025 financial year with a mixed but resilient set of results, according to its newly released Integrated Annual Report.
Total assets grew 8% to KSh 72.2 billion, up from KSh 66.8 billion in 2024. Shareholders’ funds rose even faster, climbing 9.7% to KSh 54.5 billion from KSh 49.7 billion the previous year. Group Managing Director Dr. Hillary Wachinga called the capital growth a sign of the balance sheet’s strength and the company’s ability to attract and retain quality business across its footprint.
Profit told a more complicated story. The corporation posted a profit after tax of KSh 3.92 billion, down 11.6% from KSh 4.44 billion in 2024. Total insurance revenue fell too, dropping from KSh 18.85 billion to KSh 17.07 billion, while insurance service expenses climbed 6% to KSh 11.22 billion on the back of inflation and heavier claims activity.
That combination squeezed underwriting margins hard. The insurance service result collapsed from a profit of KSh 2.95 billion in 2024 to just KSh 108.4 million in 2025.
Investment performance picked up much of the slack. Net investment income jumped 41% to KSh 6.6 billion, driven by a shift toward higher yielding fixed income securities and better returns from the company’s real estate holdings. Management pointed to this as the defining highlight of the year, crediting it with cushioning the underwriting pressure and keeping overall profitability intact.
The board has recommended a first and final dividend of KSh 0.15 per share, unchanged from 2024 and totalling roughly KSh 840 million. Kenya Re framed the payout as consistent with its commitment to sustainable dividends while preserving enough capital to fund future growth, including moves like the Tanzania and Rwanda office openings now on the table.
Chairman Eric Gumbo, in his first year leading the board, described 2025 as a period that tested the corporation’s institutional strength amid currency volatility and a shifting regulatory landscape, yet left it standing on firmer footing than before.
What Comes Next
If the tenders close as scheduled and the liaison office consultancy moves forward, Kenya Re will add two new markets to a regional footprint that already includes subsidiaries in Côte d’Ivoire, Zambia and Uganda. For a reinsurer navigating thinner underwriting margins, leaning further into new territories looks less like a gamble and more like the next logical step in spreading risk and capturing growth where demand is rising fastest.
