Mudavadi-linked buyers to pay Absa about KSh3bn for two Kenyan insurers

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An investment firm linked to Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi is set to pay Absa Group about KSh3bn for controlling stakes in two Kenyan insurers, a price below the roughly KSh3.8bn the South African bank had been expected to seek.

The buyer, First Assurance Investments Limited, is taking Absa’s 63.32% shareholding in First Assurance Company Limited, a general insurer, and the same stake in Absa Life Assurance Kenya Limited. Absa signed the sale agreement in August 2026. The deal still needs approval from Kenya’s Insurance Regulatory Authority and other customary conditions.

Details of the agreed price circulated over the weekend in market briefings of Absa’s Kenya insurance exit, putting the cheque near KSh3bn (about $23.2m) rather than the higher figure sources had flagged earlier.

Who is buying Absa’s stake

First Assurance Investments is owned 52.5% by Syndicate Nominees, which Mr Mudavadi told Parliament in 2022 belongs to him, and 47.5% by Exclusive Holding Limited, a Mombasa-based vehicle. Lamu Governor Issa Timamy is a director and shareholder of the investment company, according to regulatory filings and court records cited in reporting on the deal.

Mr Mudavadi already holds a direct stake in First Assurance through Syndicate Nominees, giving him a combined interest of about 21% before Absa’s shares change hands. Other minority holders include businessman Stephen Githiga, Chandaria Ventures and Epoch Investments, linked to Jambojet chairman Ayisi Makatiani.

The purchase would return majority control of First Assurance to Kenyan investors who sold it to Barclays Africa (now Absa) in 2015 for about KSh2.2bn. They are paying roughly KSh800m more this time, and also taking the life book Absa built alongside the general-insurance business.

Why Absa is selling

Johannesburg-based Absa has been exiting insurance manufacturing outside South Africa. It has already sold units in Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique, and now prefers to distribute other insurers’ products through its bank branches.

That bancassurance model has been strong in Kenya. Absa Bank Kenya’s bancassurance net profit rose 35% to KSh1.3bn in 2025, the highest among local banks. Absa Life Assurance Kenya’s net profit, by contrast, fell 26% to KSh790.1m in the same year.

Absa Life, licensed in 2015, was the first life insurer in Kenya to sell mainly through a bank. It ranks around seventh among life underwriters, while First Assurance is about 13th among general insurers. Absa Bank Kenya has said existing distribution ties with the two insurers are expected to continue after the sale, and that customer products should not be disrupted. Readers comparing underwriters can start with our guide to the top insurance companies in Kenya by market share.

What the deal means for Kenya’s insurance market

The transaction sits in a busy year for insurance deal-making. Sanlam Allianz Kenya, for example, has moved to fold a large life unit into its listed parent, another sign that groups are reshaping how they hold underwriting risk. Our earlier report on that Sanlam Allianz life-unit reorganisation shows how listed parents are consolidating books.

For Absa shareholders and private-banking clients, the strategic point is that the group can leave the capital-heavy side of insurance while keeping fee income from selling policies in branches. For a wider view of how Kenyan banks pitch high-net-worth services, see our guide to private banking services in Kenya.

First Assurance traces its roots to 1930, when it traded in Kenya as Prudential Assurance. Kenyan investors completed a buyout of the British owners in 1991. Closing Absa’s exit will depend on the IRA and any other regulators clearing the change of control. Until then, Absa remains the majority shareholder of both books on paper.

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