I have been searching for a life cover for some time but I find the term and conditions unacceptable and very limiting on how one chooses to live. Some examples of exclusions - circumstances under which a life cover will not pay include:

Death due to pregnancy or pregnancy related causes

Death while riding a motor cycle either as a passenger or the driver

Death while fully or partially under the influence of alcohol. This is irrespective of how the death occured and whether you were party to the events or not.

Death while undertaking certain activities such as water skiing, mountain climbing, riding in a hot air balloon. This is irrespective of the fact that it may be a one off experience and not your usual hobby or occupation.

Accidental death is defined as death that is directly caused by the accident and involves actual physical bodily harm. I wonder what the interpretation would be if one is involved in an accident and is hospitalised but dies 2 weeks later from a hospital acquired infection.

Death from riots is also excluded.

These exclusions make it pointless to take a death cover. If you are a young active person, these exclusions make it more likely that your dependants will not be paid.

Is there anyone in Kenya offering a simple life cover without all these exclusions. A life cover is supposed to allow one to enjoy life events knowing that the family is well taken care of in case of death from any cause. These cover exclusions almost make it such that one has to walk around with a checklist of things you should not do.

I have an ongoing case with Britak. Took an education policy with them but stopped paying premiums after 3 yrs. They want to give me back only 30% of the fund value. I am arguing I shoud get more because even though I stopped paying premiums at 3 yrs, I did not cancel the policy but left it as is to continue growing. Has anyone had experience with RBA in arbitrating such issues.

I had one with old mutual which i stopped paying after 3 years after realizing their yearly returns are low.took instead a loan tu buy plot which am paying using same money would i have paid as premiums. it had a maturity of 10 years but with opt out option of 5 years. wanted to know if it possible to withdraw minus whatever penalty before the 5 years

I think people are mistaking it here and not answering @tom_boy. There's a difference between insurance life cover and investment policy. With life cover, you are not looking at getting back your contributions. It's a cover whose benefits are payable to your next of kin in case of your demise. Ni kama car insurance or medical insurance. You pay the premiums but you don't ask for your contributions once you cancel the policy.

The law requires the insurer to pay a "surrender value" for all policies which have a survival benefit and the policyholder has paid premiums for 3 or more years.
So you should be paid something - but it will be less than what you had put in as premiums