Director of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin has assembled a specially trained team of investigators to expedite investigations in femicide cases reported in the country.
In a statement on Tuesday, Amin vowed to avail all capacity and resources at his disposal for the team to deliver on its mandate.
“These killings have cast a dark shadow over our safety and security endeavours; we must put this menace to end with remarkable speed and finality,” he said.
The team which comprises criminal intelligence analysts and forensic experts has been tasked to come up with swift and comprehensive preventive strategies to address sexual offences and murder incidents involving women.
While briefing the team on the enormous task ahead of them, Amin directed the team to partner with other stakeholders to bring to an end what he termed an atrocious violation of human rights.
Amin said between 2021 and 2024, a total of 94 cases of killings of women and girls were reported to the DCI.
He said 65 suspects have since been arraigned in various courts across the country in connection with the murders.
The DCI boss instructed the special team of investigators to complete the pending investigations and ensure all those found culpable were brought to book.
Amin also appealed to the public to volunteer information that could aid in investigations or assist in the apprehension of perpetrators of the crimes through the toll-free hotline 0800722203.
“There is a nexus between femicide and sexual violence. We know the perpetrators of these heinous crimes, let us expose them. Let us all join hands to defeat this evil,” he said.
On Saturday, women groups and rights activists led Kenyans in Nairobi and across major urban towns in holding peaceful protests to call for action in ending the surging murders involving women.
It followed the gruesome murders of young women in Airbnbs in South B and Roysambu where a university student was decapitated and dismembered after her murder.
Protesters carried placards and donned T-shirts with messages ‘stop killing women’ as they called for authorities to crack down on the perpetrators.
But still, at least two more murders of women have been reported since then.
On Monday, the body of a woman, 20, who was reported missing two weeks ago was found dumped in a forest in Kiambu County.
Preliminary investigations indicated that she may have been raped before being killed elsewhere and her body dumped in Kinale Forest along the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway.
On Tuesday, the body of a pregnant woman was also found dumped off the Moi South Lake road in Naivasha.
The body of the woman in her mid-20s was found with fresh wounds on her hands, neck and head.
In both incidents, the bodies of the women were half-naked.
In Homa Bay, the body of a 50-year-old woman who had been reported missing for two days was on Monday found dumped in River Awach.
Statistics from Africa Data Hub released on January 23 indicate that 546 women and girls have been murdered between 2016 and 2023.
Husbands were found as the biggest perpetrators of femicide having taken the lives of 241 of the victims.
Boyfriends accounted for 130 of the cases, strangers 99, friend or suspects known to victims killed 22, ex-husbands 19, family members 18 while ex-boyfriends were found to have taken the lives of 17 former lovers.