Economy Police involved in a third of all crimes

Survey shows police officers were involved in many crimes. PHOTO | FILE

More than a third of crimes reported to the police in 2015 involved police officers themselves, government statistics released last week show — revealing the illicit link between crime and law enforcement officers in Kenya.

The Economic Survey 2016 says uniformed officers were involved in 24,647 or 34 per cent of the total 72,490 cases of crimes reported to the police last year.

The official data, which was released last Tuesday, also shows that criminal activity continued to grow countrywide despite the billions of shillings invested in the purchase of equipment and recruitment of additional officers to reduce the ratio of security personnel to the population.

The volume of reported crimes hit a new high of 72,490 compared to 69,376 in 2014. Traffic offences, which accounted for 14,498 or 20 per cent of the total reported cases, increased by the widest margin, highlighting the continued mess in road transport.

Police officers were mostly involved in drug trafficking, criminal damage and economic crimes even as they fell less vulnerable to corruption by sex which reduced to 118 in 2015 compared to 146 in 2014.

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The report shows that police officers were also involved in soliciting for bribes, accepting bribe, accepting free gifts, handling stolen property and demanding by false pretence. The law-enforcement agents were also accused of stealing from people and other criminal offences.

And in what gives the clearest footprint of criminal activity across the country, the report shows that Kiambu County with 4,768 reported cases had the highest intensity of crimes followed by Nakuru (4,384), Nairobi (4,383), Meru (4,215) and Mombasa (3,194).

Meru County, however, reported the highest increase in criminal activity, having recorded 2,244 new cases followed by Kitui (851), Machakos (723) and Bungoma (702).

“The highest declines were recorded in Nairobi, Kirinyaga and Elgeyo Marakwet respectively,” the report says.

The highest increase in the number of crimes reported was in offences against persons (assault), which rose by 1,263 to 21,174 in 2015 followed by offences against morality (defilement, rape) which grew by 980 to 6,164.

Murder cases were also on the rise, hitting 1,423 while murder convictions stood 205 during the same period.

And in what may surprise many data sociologists and crime busters, Meru also registered the highest number of murder cases at 351 followed by Nyeri and Nairobi at 207 and 118, respectively.

The number of drugs related offences, criminal damage, economic crimes and corruption by sex fell to 12,206 or 5.3 per cent less than those reported in 2014.

“Dangerous drugs and criminal damage jointly accounted for 72.5 per cent of all reported offences in 2015,” the report says, adding that the proportion of female offenders rose to 20.7 per cent compared to 18.4 per cent in 2014.

The report also shows that women’s involvement in economic crimes dropped to 831 in 2015 from 913 reported in 2014 even as the number of women involved in criminal damage rose slightly to 893 from 878.

Marginal gains were, however, recorded in the management of sexual offences and offences against morality which dropped to 26,250 or eight per cent lower than the 28,525 reported in 2014.

“Defilement accounted for 72.1 per cent of all offences against morality, while assault accounted for 70.7 per cent of other offences against persons during the review period. For all reported offences, the number of males was higher than that of females,” the report says.

The report says the “number of persons reported to have either committed manslaughter or caused death by dangerous driving in 2015 was higher than that reported in 2014. In 2015, the number of males and females reported to have committed homicide stood at 1,625 and 422 compared to 1,759 and 444 in 2014, respectively.”

Murder, causing death by dangerous driving, and suicide accounted for 66.2, 14 and 10.8 per cent of the total cases of homicide, respectively.

Reported cases of robbery dropped 10.9 per cent last year to 22,869 incidents while theft of motor vehicles and other vehicle-related theft stood at 922 or 20.8 per cent lower than in 2014.

But theft cases rose to a new high in 2015 just as was the case in 2014 with females accounting for 16.2 per cent of all persons reported to have committed robbery and theft.