For the fourth year running, Nairobi was named the most crime prevalent county in the country by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) during the year 2022.
KNBS, through the Economic Survey 2023 report released on Wednesday, May 3, indicated that other top counties in crime prevalence were; Kiambu, Meru and Nakuru.
The report indicated that Mandera was the safest county in Kenya followed by Wajir and Lamu.
“Nairobi City County Command Station recorded the highest number at 8,512 while Mandera County Command Station recorded the least at 337,” the report indicated in part.
For Kiambu, a total of 7,844 crimes were reported with Meru reporting 5,698 crime incidences in 2022.
Nakuru crime rate was at 4,514 reported cases while in Machakos, command stations received a total of 3,813 crime cases.
Other counties in the top ten included; Murang’a (2,696), Bungoma (2,668), Kisii (2,641), Mombasa (2,321) and Kitui (2,341).
“Offences against persons, stealing and offences against morality jointly accounted for more than half of total crimes reported to the police in 2022.
“The highest increase in crimes reported to the police was recorded for theft of stock (36.4 per cent) followed by traffic offences (28.5 per cent) and robbery (27.2 per cent),” the report indicated.
On why the crime rate was on the rise in Kenya, the report indicated that the number of criminals carrying firearms had substantially increased.
“In 2022, police recovered 235 illegally held firearms compared to 98 firearms recovered in 2021.
“The number of firearms surrendered increased to 375 in 2022 compared to 16 firearms surrendered in 2021,” the report indicated.
Additionally, the report indicated that police recovered 3,879 rounds of ammunition in 2022 down from 8,225 recovered in 2021.
