Survey: Kenya police involved in quarter of all crimes
More than a quarter 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.
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).
