Data from the Economic Survey 2020 released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) on Tuesday, April 28 offers several insights into the state of security in Kenya.
Chapter 17 of the 418-page document covering governance, peace and security revealed that there was a 5.8% increase in crimes reported to the police in 2019, rising to 93,411 from 88,268 in 2018.
Nairobi City, Kiambu, Meru, Nakuru, Mombasa, Kisii, Machakos, and Murang’a registered the highest number of reported criminal cases and together account for a staggering 41.9% of all crimes reported in the country during the review period.
Nairobi City Command Station accounted for 8.8% of all crimes reported to police, with Kiambu and Meru responsible for 7.1% and 6.5% respectively in 2019.
Nandi Police Ccommand Station registered a massive increase of 67.3% in crimes reported to police from 1,235 in 2018 to 2,066 in 2019.
Tana River, Kisii and Trans Nzoia command stations also recorded notable increases in reported crimes in 2019, up 43.8 %, 29.9 %, 26.5 % respectively from the previous year.
Wajir Command Station recorded the single largest decrease of reported crimes, at 46% while Narok also registered a notable decline of 28.1%.
Cases of homicide rose by 4% to 2,971 with reported crimes against morality also registering a worrying increase of 11.3% to reach 8.051 in 2019.
Murder cases registered at the High Court increased to 1,171 although murder convictions dropped to 243 in the same period.
Of all reported crimes against morality, defilement made up 76.4% in 2019, increasing by 13.2% from the previous year to reach 5,397.
Cases of stealing including robberies also increased significantly, rising by 8.6% in the review period.
On the back of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s war on corruption that saw many high-profile arrests in 2019, there was also a notable increase of 16.7% in reported cases of economic crimes.
The number of corruption reports referred for investigation by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) increased by 20.2% to reach 3482, up from 2,898 in 2018.
The value of public assets recovered by the EACC in 2019 was Ksh4.5 billion while the value of loss averted was Ksh14.5 billion.
Environmental crimes reported to the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) registered a decrease of 24.9% to hit 396 in 2019.
