A family in the United Kingdom has warned travellers to liaise with their insurance service providers before flying out for tours after their daughter was hit with a Ksh20 million medical bill following an accident in Africa.
According to the family, the insurance company refused to cover medical expenses for their daughter, claiming that it was invalid as she had applied for it while in Kenya rather than the UK.
The family’s ordeal started in December 2022 when the family travelled from Midhusts, West Sussex in the United Kingdom to Kenya for the Christmas holidays.
At the time the family had an insurance cover provided by a UK-based company, which they had applied before flying to Kenya.
After the Christmas holidays in Kenya, the daughter loved the experience and decided to extend the safari to South Africa. The father applied for another insurance policy covering the South African trip for their daughter as the rest of the family travelled back to the UK.
While in South Africa, she unfortunately fell ill and suffered a brain haemorrhage in February 2023.
The insurance provider stated that the policy was invalid since she had made the application while in Kenya. This was regardless of the fact that the father had paid all the premiums.
In devastating news, the family was told they had to cover all the costs since their daughter’s trip to South Africa had started from Kenya and not the UK. According to the insurance policy, there was a condition that the journey must start in the UK.
“I assumed, well, it started in the UK, it did not start anywhere else,” the father complained in futility.
"You see stories about other people, and you think how awful it is to happen to them, but you never really realise things will happen to you, so just make sure everything's in order, that you are covered, and everything will be ok,” the daughter warned fellow tourists.
The company has since cancelled the policy and refunded the family the full premium as they struggled to raise the Ksh20 million. It, however, did not reveal the amount of premium paid by the client.
In its defence, the insurance company stated that the declaration form required one to confirm that “anyone named in the policy is travelling from and returning to the United Kingdom.”
