Most murder cases happened in poorer neighbourhoods
in 2024, a new report has shown.
The study conducted by the National Crime
Research Centre (NCRC) found that men were the primary victims, especially in
cases related to cattle rustling, communal conflicts, drunken altercations,
land-related conflicts and many mob violence cases resulting from suspicions of
theft.
Women were predominantly killed in incidents of domestic violence, land/property succession disputes, love triangles and other crime-of-passion related incidents, the report said.
The study relied on data from the DCI for its analysis since it was made available as a detailed record of incidents with information on the circumstances, motives and context, detailed accounts that NCRC said made it possible to undertake various kinds of analyses that would not be possible with the annual summary statistics.
The study established that homicides were
largely concentrated in the poorer neighbourhoods and, in particular, informal
settlements and slums and adjacent areas.
In Nairobi City County, 70 per cent of the
homicides were found to have concentrated in the Eastlands of Nairobi, particularly Starehe/Kamukunji, Kariobangi, Kayole, Mathare, Embakasi, Njiru
and Kasarani, a pattern that repeated itself in other urban areas.
Homicides were also prevalent in areas where land
conflicts were widespread, areas with inter-ethnic/inter-communal conflicts, in
private settings such as homes/rental apartments/hotels and short stary apartments in urban
areas and in poorly lit streets, dark alleys, and around entertainment places,
especially at night.
Victims were sometimes attacked during robberies,
gang violence, or after disputes in bars and nightclubs.
Regarding the killers’ profiles, the study found
that the majority of the perpetrators were young males aged between 20 and 40
years, with Nairobi and Mombasa killers being in their 20s and 3os.
The study confirmed that most homicides were
committed by people who had a form of relationship with the victims either as
neighbours, intimate partners, family members, acquaintances or business
relations.
The perpetrators were not strangers to the victims
On what was driving these homicides, the study
established that generally most killings were linked to unresolved conflicts at
the family and societal levels, psychosocial and mental health problems, drugs
and substance abuse, economic stressors and limited youth opportunities,
cultural beliefs and societal norms, growing culture of mob violence and
vigilantism, entrenched and normalisation of GBV and institutional and
leadership failures such as systemic weaknesses in the entire criminal justice
chain.
“Across the country, there was a widespread public
perception that security agencies are unable and ineffective in preventing the
killings,” the study shows.
Children were also found to have often been killed
within the family context and often by someone close to them such as (step)
parent or other member of the family.
In other cases, children were incidental
victims of conflicts between their parents and yet in others, mothers were
manipulated or provoked by the stepfathers to commit the killings.
NCRC also found that a culture of violence and
patriarchy underpinned the killings of women and girls in situations where
women were killed when they rejected arranged or forced marriages, and when
they decided to end relationships with men
According to the study, many times, men expressed
a belief in the “ownership” of women in their lives and justified the violence
on that basis.
Other elderly women were subjected to stigma and
killed by mob violence, as in other cases, women were killed to conceal
evidence of sexual assault, rape and defilement.
Commercial sex workers were particularly
vulnerable since they operate in the shadows, afraid that the authorities and
their clients are not required to present their details at lodgings and rental
places, the study found out.
“Women’s vulnerability to violence and killings is
exacerbated by the lack of a social support system for those at risk. There was
very limited assistance for women subjected to violence by their spouses,
partners or family. Those seeking to leave violent relationships had very few
support services available to them,” the report adds.
Regarding investigations and prosecutions of
homicide cases, the study established that the DCI is faced with capacity and
resource challenges that make it difficult to deliver on its mandate, including
inadequate investigations caused by inadequate skills and limited resources
that resulted in failure to identify and arrest the perpetrators, premature
termination of investigations and failure to secure community support by giving
evidence.
Those samples further claimed corruption as
responsible for compromising the entire justice process which explains the
police’s assertion that the public has been reluctant to provide support in
investigations.
The respondents further blamed the courts for
delays and backlog of cases that the study found to be linked with
understaffing, gaps in police investigations and securing of witnesses and in
some cases, judges' frequent transfers.
