A unit at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) identified as the Crime Research Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) is behind the success rate of the DCI investigations across the country.
Reports by the Daily Nation on Sunday, January 19, indicate that the unit, which uses technology to unravel complex cases, has so far managed to resolve more than 50 cases that had gone cold in the past.
The CRIB was established in 2018 by DCI boss George Kinoti as a result of the need to have a centralised unit that profiles offenders through crime research and analysis, the use of DNA, forensics, and ballistics to solve a crime.
DCI Kinoti narrated that the reason for the establishment of the team was to ensure that the detectives concentrated in intelligence research and analysis to solve crimes.
"My goal with the establishment of this unit is to ensure no crime ever goes unresolved. Evidence collected from crime scenes will undergo forensic, DNA and ballistic analysis to speedily assist investigating officers with their work.
"For a long time, police have stuck to the archaic procedures of solving criminal cases, some of which have remained unresolved for decades. On the other hand, criminals have embraced technology in committing murder, cybercrime, and fraud. This will be a thing of the past," Kinoti was quoted.
The unit collects crime data from across the country and store it in a database, after which they establish trends and patterns in crime.
The team's biggest success so far was the leading the police to a hideout in Kitui where an eight-man gang that had been running rampant in Nairobi and its environs for over a decade was captured.
Reports from the Daily Nation indicate that the gang underwent profiling by the CRIB unit after which links to over 40 unresolved cases dating far back to 2012 were established.
The robbers were arrested on November 10, 2019, during a violent robbery incident at Nguuni Market in Machakos county.
The gang, which was armed with a gun, machete and metal rod had attacked a shopkeeper and beat him senseless before robbing him of Ksh70,000, three mobile phones and airtime worth Ksh8,000.
After the arrest of four, the CRIB unit's analysis linked the members to a spate of violent robberies and brutal murders across the country, all of which had gone unsolved.
Some of the murders include that of a diplomat and a Dutch journalist amongst others in 2012. The gang was also linked to a myriad of unresolved robberies, including the attack on Citizen TV's Linus Kaikai in Ongata Rongai that led to the loss of property.
