A new study now shows that the crime rate in Kenya is one of the highest on the African Continent.
A research commissioned by Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime shows Kenya is a near hub for terrorism, human trafficking, and money laundering.
The findings in the report titled “Africa Organized Crime Index 2023, Increasing Criminality, Growing Vulnerability” done by ENACT (Enhancing Africa’s Response to Transnational Organized Crime) is attributing this state of affairs to widespread insecurity and declining democratic order.
Kenya falls within the high criminality, low resilience segment in the study with an average criminality score of 7.02 out of 10 and scores above average for all criminal markets assessed by the Index.
It has a score of 8.0 in human trafficking, human smuggling (7.5); extortion and protection racketeering (7.0); arms trafficking (7.5); trade in counterfeit goods (7.0); heroin trade (7.5); cocaine trade (6.0); cannabis trade (6.5); synthetic drug trade (5.5); cyber dependent crimes (8.0); and financial crimes (7.5).
These illicit markets have a negative impact on nearly all parts of Kenyan society.
Local Civil society heads led by Gladwell Otieno and John Githongo are calling for concerted efforts in fighting crime, noting that organised crime is an obstacle to much-needed international cooperation.
The Index ranks all 54 countries on the continent according to their levels of criminality on a score from 1 to 10 (lowest to highest levels of criminality) and according to their resilience to organised crime from 1 to 10 (lowest to highest resilience levels).
In terms of regional dynamics, East Africa is the highest-scoring region on the continent for overall criminality (5.88) followed by West Africa (5.44).
East Africa ranks among the top five regions for criminality in the world, as a hotbed of illicit activities and a stronghold for criminal actors, whose influence is aggravated by prolonged conflicts that make the region more vulnerable to the threat of organized crime.