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Kenya: 2020 Safest Year Since 2008, Thanks to Covid-19

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4 years ago

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The Covid 19 pandemic came as a blessing in disguise in terms of the safety and security of Kenyans after the economic survey released Thursday showed a huge decline in the number of crimes committed last year, the first time this has happened in seven years.

With the movement of people restricted at night and travel between some counties limited for the better part of last year, criminals suddenly found themselves dealing with an increased police presence, which made it difficult for them to operate.

Overall, there was a decline in the number of crimes reported to the police by 25.4 percent to 69,245 cases last year from 93,411 in 2019. This decrease also included the number of offenders reported to the police, which fell by 21 percent to 65,088.

All the previous economic surveys have shown a year-on-year increase in crime. Like in 2016, the number of crimes committed stood at 76,986. This number increased to 77,992 the next year and then to 88,268 in 2018.

Low crime rate

The number reported Thursday makes 2020 the safest year for Kenyans since 2008. The last time the number of crimes reported hit below 70,000 was in 2010 when 67,362 offences were committed.

The survey, however, noted that the Interior Ministry and the National Police Service have Covid 19 to thank for the good record. Apart from an increase in patrols and roadblocks, many police officers did not go on leave last year, in order to ensure compliance with the Covid 19 health and safety protocols.

“The declines were attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic containment measures such as restriction of movement and curfews,” said the survey.

“However, homicide, corruption and offences against morality slightly increased by 4.7, 2.3 and 13.7 percent, respectively during the review period,” noted the survey.

In total, there were 3,111 murders reported to the police last year, 9,153 offences against morality and 133 corruption cases. Offences against morality include rape, defilement, prostitution, bigamy, incest and bestiality.

Child trafficking

“On the contrary, cases reported on child trafficking and victims of violence such as child pregnancy, defilement, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and physical abuse went up during the review period,” said the survey.

However, despite a huge decline in crime across the country Lamu, Taita Taveta, Garissa, Kisumu and Samburu counties witnessed a slight increase. Nairobi, Kiambu, Nakuru, Machakos, Meru, Kisii, Kisumu and Mombasa command police stations jointly accounted for 40.1 percent of all the crimes reported in 2020.

“Other command stations that recorded significant declines in reported crimes were Nandi, Murang’a, Kericho, Makueni and Kajiado at 44.3, 36.7, 36.3, 35.9 and 34.0 percent, respectively,” noted the survey.