- The survey says that in the same period, the prison population increased by over 78,482 to 248,061 in 2023. In 2022, the numbers stood at 169,579.
- "The number of convicted prisoners increased by 20.6 per cent to 80,071 in 2023 while the number of unconvicted prisoners increased by more than half to 167,990 during the same period."
Image: FILE
Official data by the government has revealed that an estimated 216 Kenyans go to prison every day for different offences.
This equals 6,540 prisoners a month and 78, 482 in the year 2023 alone, coming in the wake of a spike in crime incidences in the country.
The 2024 Economic survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics says that crimes reported in Kenya increased by at least 13 per cent.
This, according to the survey, brought the total reported crimes to 104,842, compared to 2022.
"The number of reports received by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) for investigations increased slightly from 1,916 in 2021/22 to 1,968 in 2022/23," the survey says.
The survey says that in the same period, the prison population increased by over 78,482 to 248,061 in 2023. In 2022, the numbers stood at 169,579.
"The number of convicted prisoners increased by 20.6 per cent to 80,071 in 2023 while the number of unconvicted prisoners increased by more than half to 167,990 during the same period."
The survey said that new cases filed in 2023 were 424,324, while the ones that were disposed of were 421,549.
Some 649,229 cases remained pending.
According to the Economic Survey 2024, there were 3,111 cases of homicide in 2020, 3,281 in 2021, 3,056 in 2022 and 3,031 in 2023.
Cases of offences against morality stood at 7,655 in 2023, 7,166 in 2022, 8,182 in 2021 and 9,153 in 2020.
Robbery cases stood at 3,988 in 2023, 3,125 in 2022, 2,456 in 2021 and 2,384 in 2020 while stealing cases shot to 18,534 in 2023, 14,718 in 2022, 11,762 in 2021 and 8,709 in 2020.
Rape cases stood at 939 in 2023, 827 in 2022, 1,013 in 2021 and 973 in 2020 while defilement rose to 5,865 in 2023, 5,530 in 2022, 6,492 in 221 and 6,275 in 2020.
Sodomy cases rose to 93 in 2023 as compared to 86 in 2022, 88 in 2021 and 54 in 2020 while abduction hit 51 in 2023, 59 in 2022, 61 in 2021 and 70 in 2020.
According to the report, there were a total of 69,645 crimes reported in 2020, 81,272 in 2021, 88,083 in 2022 and 104,842 in 2023.
The number of persons reported to the police to have committed offences increased by 18.8 per cent from 87,858 in 2022 to 104,390 in 2023.
In 2023, the number of persons reported to the police to have committed offences increased by 18.8 per cent to 104,390. During the review period, the number of male and female offenders increased by 19.0 per cent and 18.2 per cent, respectively.
Nairobi City County command station accounted for the highest number of persons reported to have committed crimes at 10.6 per cent in 2023 followed by Kiambu, Meru and Nakuru counties at 9.1, 5.8 and 4.8 per cent, respectively.
The highest increase in the number of persons reported to have committed crime was recorded in Narok and Kakamega Police command stations increasing from 782 to 1,487 and 1,338 to 2,226 respectively, in 2023.
However, Samburu, Railways and Wajir command stations recorded declines in the number of persons reported to have committed crimes
According to the report, the total prison population increased by 46.3 per cent to 248,061 in 2023 while the number of convicted prisoners increased by 20.6 per cent to 80,071 in 2023 while the number of unconvicted prisoners increased by more than half to 167,990 during the same period.
The number of cyber security advisories and reported online crimes have been on the rise in the last five years.
The total cyber security advisories increased by 91.7 per cent to 26.4 million, with the majority stemming from attacks on website applications, which surged from 112,183 in 2022 to 3.9 million in 2023.
This significant increase in advisories was issued to alert users about the potential threat attacks against various Kenyan entities, including government websites, banks, and media outlets.
Moreover, the total reported cybercrimes more than doubled from 700.0 million in 2022 to 1.7 billion in 2023 with the bulk of these incidents being attributed to system vulnerabilities.
System vulnerabilities witnessed a significant rise, from 452.4 million in 2022 to 1.7 billion incidents in 2023, which underscores the growing challenge of securing digital systems against the evolving complex cyber threats.
All other categories of cybercrimes including malware, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and website application attacks, reported an average decline of 63.0 per cent.
The government says it has put in place various measures to address the crime incidents in general.
The report was released on Monday.
The report outlines the performance of various sectors of the economy in the last five years with an emphasis on the year 2023.