A Geneva-based small arms survey has shown that Kenyan civilians own more guns than the military and police combined.
750,000 fire arms are in private ownership which is much more 45,780 guns held by military and 51,527 firearms in the hands of the police.
The number shot up with 70,000 from 680,000 privately owned arms in 2016.
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The research also showed that on average, there is slightly over one gun in the hands of every 100 civilians in Kenya.
Out of the 750,000 private firearms, 99 percent are held illegally since only 8,136 are registered.
The staggering numbers have put Kenya’s collection as the largest in East Africa.
Tanzania comes in second with 427,000 guns in private hands, Uganda has 331,000. In Ethiopia, 377,000 firearms are privately owned while Rwanda’s hoard is 66,000 guns.
“Legal and illegal firearms in civilian hands range from improvised craft weapons like self-loading pistols to factory-made handguns, rifles and shotguns,” the agency revealed about the criterion used.
Owning a gun without a firearm certificate is illegal and attracts a jail term of not less than seven years, according to the Firearms Act.
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The Act bars civilians from possessing automatic and semi-automatic self-loading military assault rifles of 7.62mm or 5.56mm caliber.
Private ownership is therefore limited to handguns (pistols and revolvers), which can be held and fired with one hand, along with specific shotguns.
The sharp increase experience is due to Kenyans defying efforts by authorities to mop up small arms in a bid to curb violent crimes.
