An Insight of Strategies for improving Public Perception on Life Insurance Policies in Kenya: A case study of Nakuru Municipality

Insurance companies registered in Kenya have provided a wide range of insurance covers to enable Kenyan’s have financial control of personal risk. However life insurance in Kenya continues to experience various challenges, key among them poor public perception, which is attributed highly to low penetration levels, therefore there is need to explore ways to curb these challenges and exploit the benefits of life insurance in the economy. The study was meant to investigate possible strategies that can be used to improve public perception on life insurance in Kenya. The specific objectives included: to determine the communication strategies that can help improve public perception on life insurance in Kenya; to establish the ethical practices that can help boost the public perception on life insurance in Kenya and to determine community involvement strategies that can help raise the public perception on life insurance in Kenya. The key variables of the study were communication strategies, ethical practices and community involvement strategies. The study thus adopted a descriptive survey technique where life insurance sales agents and secondary school teachers from Nakuru municipality were selected to represent the public. Stratified random sampling method was used to select the elements of the study sample. The target population for the study comprised of 82 sales agents and 303 teachers in public secondary schools. From the target population, a sample size of 120 was selected comprising of 45 sales agents and 75 secondary school teachers. Data was collected by use of questionnaires designed by the researcher and based on the study objectives. The data was then analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentages, frequencies, mean and chi-square analysis. The study revealed that the public perception of life insurance companies remained low based on opinions from both agents and the teachers. Further, there existed a significant relationship between the communication strategies adopted, ethical practices and level of involvement in community activities and the public perception of life insurance companies. These could therefore be used as strategies for effectively changing the public perception by life insurance companies in Kenya, which would also change the public perception. However further studies should be done on factors contributing to the ethical practices in life insurance companies and also to determine the choice and application of communication strategies for life insurance companies.