By The Weekly Vision Business Desk
The liquidator of the collapsed United Insurance Company Ltd, Kamal Anantroy Bhatt, has convened a creditors’ meeting for 11th September, in what could prove the clearest step yet toward finally resolving the long-running liquidation of what was once a thriving insurance firm.
The move follows a fresh turn in the matter on Tuesday, 28th July, when Mr Bhatt faced cross-examination before Justice Gikonyo at the High Court, in a hearing that exposed unresolved recovery claims, a stalled bid to wrest control of a key subsidiary, and continuing friction over who qualifies as a creditor in the winding-up process. The matter, Winding Up Cause No. 22 of 2006, has ground on for two decades, and the 28th July proceedings suggest the endgame could be near, even as the September meeting offers creditors their first real opportunity to organise and press their claims collectively.
A formal Notice of Creditors’ Meeting and Request for Submission of Proof of Debt Forms, dated 3rd August 2026 and issued under the Insolvency Act, sets out the details. The meeting is scheduled for Friday, 11th September 2026, from 10:00 a.m., at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi, to be held in hybrid format, with provision for virtual participation. Creditors eligible to vote will elect seven representatives to a Creditors’ Committee, and the liquidator has called on all creditors who have not yet submitted their Proof of Debt forms to do so without further delay, either by collecting the forms from his office or requesting them by post or email.
Creditors have until 21st August 2026 to submit, complete or return their Proof of Debt forms, after which the deadline will be strictly enforced- forms submitted after that date, the notice warns, will not be considered for the purposes of voting or committee elections.
The notice further records that, under Section 3 of the Insolvency Act, creditors of the company include persons entitled to enforce a final judgment or final order against the company, and any persons holding decrees against the company, including holders of unsatisfied decrees passed against the company whether wholly or partially, as well as policyholders who have filed suits or petitions against the company, its officers, or its previous management.
The notice specifically references policyholders and claimants in the Joint Report of Conveners dated 26th January 2026, listed under Machakos High Court Constitutional Petition No. E019 of 2024, as well as persons holding decrees against the company or judgment debts arising from unsatisfied policy claims.
The High Court directed that a creditors’ meeting be held within two weeks, at KICC or an alternative accessible venue, and separately ordered the liquidator to file an index of all reports within 14 days. The winding-up cause itself has been fixed for further proceedings on 28th September 2026, at 11:30 a.m., before Court No. 31 at the Milimani Commercial Courts, giving the process a tight and consequential timetable running from late August through to late September.
A significant portion of the 28th July hearing turned on precisely that question. Mr Bhatt told Justice Gikonyo that, in his view, only a person who has filed a Proof of Debt form with him or his team qualifies as a creditor, a position the judge accepted. It emerged during the hearing that Mr C.N. Kihara and Mr H. Kinyanjui have, to date, not filed proof of debt forms with the liquidator, meaning their claims, in the absence of formal submission, cannot presently be recognised.
The ruling is likely to have significant consequences for any party with an outstanding or informally raised claim against the insurer, and underscores the procedural threshold now facing anyone hoping to participate in the eventual distribution of assets, ahead of the 21st August cut-off.
Mr Bhatt also raised with the court an outstanding application seeking recovery of KSh141 million from Mr George Kariuki, over compensation reportedly received in Fidei Holdings Ltd in connection with the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). According to the liquidator, Mr Kariuki was due to appear in person before the court in December, but the application remains unresolved.
Perhaps the most consequential disclosure of the hearing concerned Fidei Holdings Ltd, a company in which United Insurance holds a 99.8 per cent stake. Mr Bhatt told the court that, despite that overwhelming shareholding, he does not have control of Fidei Holdings, and alleged that the Business Registration Service (BRS) has been stalling efforts to remove the company’s directors and secretary and instal the liquidator’s own nominees in their place.
Justice Gikonyo directed the liquidator to file a formal application for an order compelling BRS to hand over control of Fidei Holdings, and instructed the liquidator’s legal team to fast-track the process. The order signals judicial impatience with what the court appears to view as a bureaucratic obstacle to the liquidation’s progress, though BRS has not yet had an opportunity to respond publicly to the allegation of stalling.
The court also heard that creditors, at an online meeting held on 2nd October 2025, had approved the sale of the insurer’s properties to settle verified claims. That approval followed months of delay attributed to the scale of the portfolio: more than 350 title deeds require assessment before a comprehensive valuation report can be finalised.
Mr Bhatt has previously told the court that he had begun paying verified creditors following the October 2025 meeting, only for the process to be halted by court order before it could be completed. “I have done my best to update the creditors and process payments. I had started processing payments but was stopped by the court,” he told the court in earlier proceedings reported by this publication.
Nearly twenty years after United Insurance was placed under liquidation, the September creditors’ meeting represents the most concrete opportunity yet for claimants to organise, elect representation, and push the process toward resolution.
