More murder cases recorded in 2019 - Economic Survey

The number of murder cases registered at the High Court increased to 1,171 in 2019 while convictions decreased to 243 in the same period.

The 2020 Economic Survey shows that the total number of murder cases registered in court increased by 10 per cent from 1,065 in 2018.

The report, however, shows that there were 1,527 reported cases of murder in 2019 as compared to 1,312 in 2018.

The Economic Survey released on Tuesday indicates that 1,275 males and 252 females were reported to have committed murder.

"Murder accounted for the highest share of homicides at 68.2 per cent in 2019 with the number of persons reported having committed this crime increasing by 16.4 per cent to 1,527 in the same period. Similarly, persons reported having caused death by dangerous driving increased by 49.2 per cent over the same period," the report says.

According to the data by the KNBS, the government also recorded 92 cases of manslaughter cases in 2019 up from 39 recorded in 2018.

Murder is a homicide committed with “malice aforethought.” That doesn’t mean it is a malicious killing.

Manslaughter is typically treated as a much less severe crime than murder. Manslaughter can be broken up into degrees or categorized as voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.

The report further notes that the number of people who committed suicide over the same period also increased to 196 up from 177 cases - 160 were males while 36 were females.

The total number of persons reported having committed homicides went up by 23.1 per cent from to 1,820 in 2018 to 2,240 in 2019.

The year 2019 became almost predictable that a month would not pass without someone getting murdered by persons close to them.

Some of the murders include;

The death of Ivy Wangechi. Ivy, a final year medical student in the College of Health Sciences, was attacked and killed in broad daylight Tuesday morning outside the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.

Father Michael Kyengo. The 40-year-old priest disappeared from his parents’ Tala home on October 5 and his body recovered on October 16 from a riverbed in Mbeere South, Embu County.

His disappearance was reported to the KBC police station on October 7. The body was mutilated, stashed in a sack at buried in the river bed. To date, it has not been established why the priest was killed.

Joseph Nyakundi. Lawyer Assa Nyakundi denied killing his son. He was however charged with manslaughter before senior principal magistrate Bosiboni Nyang'ena.

The lawyer is alleged to have killed Joseph Bogonko Nyakundi on March 17, 2019, in Nairobi.

Judy Mwai and Catherine Nyaguthie. Judith Mwai, 73, and her daughter, 47, were found dead at their Golden Gate home in March.

Police say the killer called and taunted them after the murders. They believe the caller was a woman.

Others are the murders of; Joyce Syombua, Shanice Maua and Prince Michael, Benjamin Kinyali, Tob Cohen among others.