Mugo Kibati quits as Sanlam Kenya CEO

Sanlam Kenya has appointed George Kuria to replace Mugo Kibati, who quit as Chief Executive Officer Mugo Kibati on Friday three years since he took over leadership at the diversified financial services company.

Board chairman John Simba said Mr Kibati has resigned from the firm effective from March 1, to pursue personal and professional business interests. In the interim, Sanlam’s board has appointed Kuria, the Sanlam General Insurance Ltd CEO as chief executive in an acting capacity as it seeks a suitable replacement both locally and internationally.

“The board will commence a local and international executive search process aimed at competitively filling the position. In the transition period, George Kuria to serve as acting group chief executive to facilitate smooth handover,” said Simba in a filing with the Capital Markets Authority.

Kibati has worked both in the private and public sector and was the Director General at the Kenya Vision 2030 during the tenure of former President Mwai Kibaki before moving to Sanlam in February 2015 when the group rebranded from Pan Africa Insurance Holdings.

During his stay at Sanlam, Kibati has guided the company on the path to profitability. In March last year,  it reported a 158.21% growth in net profit for the full-year ended December 2016, reversing three years of nose-diving earnings.

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Net income climbed to Ksh 70.62 million from Ksh 27.35 million a year earlier on improved general insurance business performance.

 Sanlam said profitability was largely driven by the general insurance business where gross written premium grew by 58% to Ksh 1 billion from Ksh 633 million achieved in 2015. However, gross written premium in life insurance business declined by five per cent to Ksh 4.4 billion from Ksh 4.6 billion achieved in 2015.