DCI boss George Kinoti has called for a special government kitty to run the newly launched forensic lab.
Kinoti said his agency remits over Sh1 billion to the state collected annually from the fees charged for police clearance certificates, including certificates of good conduct.
The DCI boss said part of this cash should find its way back to the directorate to fund its activities.
He wants the part of the fund substantially ploughed back to the establishment in the form of appropriation-in-aid to help in running the facility.
The fund if established, Kinoti says, will be set aside for acquiring the relevant licenses, chemicals, consumables and for day-to-day operations of the laboratory.
He said the fund will be used to cater for further periodic training of officers at the facility and a better remunerative package to ensure low turnover rates.
“The experts deployed at this facility will require specialised training and welfare to cushion the directorate against brain drain and to keep them abreast with contemporary scientific investigations skills, competencies, practices and global status,” the DCI boss said.
Kinoti is upbeat that if well-funded and managed, the lab will boost the capacity of the DCI as the regional hub in resolving complex criminal matrices and beat back the wave of crime.
“We no longer give opinions but provide 100 per cent scientific proof and that is why we celebrate the end of an era of being dismissed as poor in investigations,” he said.
“We produce graphic and empirical evidence that in some cases have brought shock and awe where we were condemned as giving confidential and private evidence.”
The new lab can analyse over 1,000 DNA samples at a go.
Kinoti said this capacity is critical in resolving cases involving rape, defilement and homicide among other crimes that require technical chemistry, physics and biological skills in handling.
In vices of forgery, he said, the lab can help process over 5,000 cases of falsification of documents, including title deeds, academic certificates, cheques and currency notes among others, annually.
It will also analyse computers, mobile phones and other electronic gadgets in the fight against online bullying, human trafficking, terror financing, child abuse and misuse of electronic gadgets.
He said his ballistic experts stationed at the lab are now able to link criminals with guns they have used to commit crimes easily, thereby deterring insecurity.
“This includes a recent case where a single firearm recovered in Kitui was used to commit over 30 crimes in Machakos, Nairobi, Kajiado and Kiambu,” Kinoti said.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
