As Kenya strives to fight against the ever rising crime rates in the country, new statistics have revealed that the quiet city of champions Eldoret tops the country in murder cases.
The 2019 Economic Survey shows that the total number of murder cases registered increased from 956 in 2017 to 1,065 in 2018.
The report says there were 90 cases of murder in Eldoret, 88 in Nakuru, 79 in Meru, and 66 in Nairobi, making the urban areas the deadliest for the crime whose conviction attracts capital punishment.
It comes at a time when Kenyans have woken up to shocking cases of murders, some crimes of passion, with young university girls and married women increasingly falling victims. The report does not however give a breakdown of murder by gender.
The recent murder of Moi university medicine student in Eldoret might have contributed to the ranking of the city as the most leading. Other cases include that of David Siloba who in February killed his 25-year-old girlfriend Fiona Kisuya in Kapsoya Estate and disposing her body in a rubbish pit.
Other murder cases included the killing of a boda boda rider at Kipkenyo in the town. The case sparked a lot of protests after police mysteriously released the murder suspects before they were arraigned in court. The killing and dumping of bodies mostly of boda boda riders at sosiani river has also been on the rise.
“The number of persons reported to the police to have committed crimes increased by 5.1 per cent to 75,037 in 2018, of which Kiambu police command station had the highest share at 8.4 per cent followed by Nairobi City at 8.3 per cent,” the report adds.
The report further shows that the Kenyan courts became busier in the year under review after the number of cases filed increased by 16.9 per cent from 344,180 in 2017 to 402,243 in 2018.
“The number of cases disposed of increased by 21.8 per cent from 304,182 in 2017 to 370,488 in 2018. The number of pending cases has been on an upward trend since 2015 and stood at 571,094 in 2018,” the report released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) reads in part.
It adds that the number of pending cases has been on an upward trend since 2015 and stood at 571,094 in 2018.
The total prison population increased from 208,168 persons in 2017 to 223,718 persons in 2018.
On their part, the convicted female prison population increased by 25.3 per cent to 10,028 in 2018 while the convicted male prison population increased by 2 per cent to 73,868 in 2018.
The proportion of female prison population increased from 8.8 per cent in 2017 to 9.6 per cent in 2018.