We have managed to reduce crime rate by 13 percent, Interior CS Kindiki says

Interior and National Administration Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has said that crime rate across the country has reduced by 13 percent in the past three months since he assumed office.

While holding a press briefing to mark his 100 days in office, Kindiki said that the ministry had managed to thwart a number of terror attack plots as well as recovering 60 percent of livestock stolen by cattle rustlers in the affected North Eastern region and Kerio Valley attacks.

The CS said the ministry has resort to understand the problem first before engaging the insecurity situation in the terror and banditry attacks prone areas led by the Northern and Kerio Valley regions respectively.

He said the government has reopened 15 schools in the affected areas as he warned the political class believed to be masterminds funding the orchestration of banditry attacks in the hardly hit regions.

“The attacks and stealing have occasioned socio-economic decay led to closure of schools and disserted health facilities…. The bandits steal and scatter into sub-groups and in different directions making it difficult for security agencies to swiftly get hold of all the perpetrators at ago… The situation has made us to involve local communities, authorities and leaders,” concurred CS Kindiki.

Kindiki hinted that the newly recruited security officers are set to be deployed in the banditry and livestock rustling to reinforce security in the affected areas as well as increase the use of community, ground and aerial surveillance to help curb the menace.

Additionally, the CS urged all persons who had sought assistance and made application at the immigration ministry to pick their already processed applications at respective state departments domiciled under the interior ministry and national administration.

“We have initiated plans that all applications made at the ministry to be processed within 21 days at the citizenry and state departments as we have also managed to process all application backlogs that have been pending at the ministry,” he said.

The CS concurred that under his 100 days in office, the Interior and National Administration ministry has accomplished 10 key achievements among them developing terms of reference to the taskforce committee in the ongoing reforms and betterment of police welfare of the National Police Service (NPS) and the Kenya Prisons Service.

“We have opened a police leadership academy, managed to accelerate construction of NPS hospitals in mbagathi, Kenya Prisons in Ruiru and lastly Kanyunyu in kitui which is to be launched on 24th February…. Streamlined issuance of E-passport processes…. Initiated process of acquisition and installation of advance Passenger Information (API) systems…. E-gates and modern electronic security survailance at JKIA…. Initiated process of online registration of births and deaths set to be launched on March 1, 2023…. Initiated introduction of Unique Personal Identifier (UPI) for the New borns in the country…. Initiated introduction of Smart generational digital ID…. Clearance of 5-year backlog of passport applications…. Reduced overall rate of crime in the country,” CS Kindiki reaffirmed.