An estimated 1,600 motorists lost their vehicles in the past year, translating to an average of four cars vanishing due to carjackings daily, a new report has revealed.
National Council of Administration of Justice (NCAJ), in its annual report on the Financial Year 2022 to 2023 released on Tuesday, showed that 1,666 cars were reported stolen in the year 2022.
This marked an increase of 300 cases compared to the year 2021, which had 1,335 reported cases.
In comparison, 1,066 car theft cases were reported during the pandemic, signalling a 14.3 per cent increase.
The worrying statistics show a spike in cases of vehicles being stolen, a trend attributed to the overall increase in criminal activities.
NCAJ's report revealed that overall crime increased from 85,539 in the year 2021 to 97,301 cases in the year 2022.
From the data, cases of assault, stealing and drugs were the most crimes reported to various police stations across the country, with 25 per cent, 18 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.
"Serious criminal activities declined between FY 2018/19 to 2020/21, followed by a gradual increase to 97,301 during the year under review, "read part of the report.
"The decline in reported cases of crimes especially in FY 2020/21, could be partly attributed to the pandemic measures on restriction of movement."
The data correlates with the latest data by the Association of Kenya Insurers, which revealed that car thieves target brands and models that are most popular in the market.
AKI showed that Toyota brands are the most reported models at 74 per cent, followed by Isuzu, Nissan and Mitsubishi with 5.64 per cent, 4.33 per cent and 3.28 per cent, respectively.
Other brands that are targeted by car thieves include Mazda, Scania, Subaru, Mercedes Benz, Honda, Volkswagen, Chevrolet and Suzuki.
Lorries and pickups were also included in the list due to their commercial viability.
