The National Crime and Research Centre (NCRC) is conducting a study to understand the causes and patterns surrounding rising cases of femicide cases in Kenya.
This follows revelations that of the about 400 murder cases reported in September, October and November of 2024 about 100 are women.
Deputy Inspector General of Kenya Police Eliud Lagat termed the trend as troubling and called for action to address the same.
“This troubling trend highlights the urgent need for focused action and collaboration to tackle the widespread problem of gender-based violence in society,” he said.
Femicide, defined as the intentional killing of women and girls.
“This has become a critical issue in Kenya, especially with a significant increase in murder and manslaughter cases over the past two years,” he said.
NCRC Director Mutuma Ruteere said Friday the study will also seek to establish whether the crimes are committed by individuals or groups of people and whether there are similarities in the characteristics of the victims to be able to advise government agencies on suitable deterrence strategies.
"We are working on it, looking at the data, trying to understand the patterns and the context," he said.
He spoke during the launch of the centre's 2023-2027 strategic plan and five key research reports around security and administration of justice in the country.
The plan aims to create impact in four Key Result Areas of Strategic Crime Research and Information Management, Sustainable Institutional Strengthening, Adaptability, and Visibility, Digitisation and Automation of the Centre’s Processes and Strategic Collaboration, Partnerships, and Networking Each of these pillars is designed to enhance the Centre’s research capabilities, operational resilience, and collaborative efforts over the next five years.
“NCRC is committed to "fighting crime through research," and its research reports will provide valuable insights to inform our programming and initiatives,” he said.
Ruteere said it will be critical for the centre to look at data from a long span of time that allows the researchers to understand the patterns that manifested then and whether there are similarities with the patterns that are being witnessed today.
"Remember crime is as old as human beings and almost nothing is new, what is happening now is probably something that has happened before, so we want to understand the patterns and why. Hopefully, in the next couple of months, we should have a report," Ruteere said.
There has been a debate on whether women are targeted in the murders with some players in the industry arguing crime does not discriminate gender.
Director of Directorate of Criminal Investigations Amin Mohamed in January this year announced a specialised team of investigators from the Homicide Unit had received clear instructions to expedite the probe into serious sexual offences and murders involving women, to curb the alarming trend of femicide in the country.
The team was also directed to develop swift and comprehensive strategies jointly with stakeholders against what the director described as an egregious human rights violation.
Ruteere said the complexity of the crime calls for a more holistic approach to its management.
"Majority of the victims actually get killed at homes, this is even much more complex than having a special unit or a squad," he added.
He said a special unit may give value for such a time as this when there is a surge.
"Given the complexity of it, femicide cannot just be solved by a unit because some contexts have shown that women are killed actually by people they are familiar with or known to them, either within the family or linked in one way or another so there are other areas that you need to look at to prevent this problem from continuing," he said.
Following revelations that in 2019 there were cases of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) that saw over 40 women and five men killed by a current or ex-partner, officials said the trend was common and normalised at the time.
This triggered a study that revealed that the individual risk factors underlying male perpetrators of intimate partner violence were mainly envy/jealousy, mental disorders manifesting in the forms of uncontrolled anger by men as well as societal risk factors that threatened the male position in society, poor parenting; internet/ technology, lack of respect for the marriage institution and breakdown of social/societal norms respectively.
Ruteere however said the planned study on femicide cases in the country will be different.
"The concern is not just about a rise in femicide but also that of homicides. We want to understand if that is true or not, is it a surge of violent crime in general or is it a particular crime?”
“Unless we sit down and look at the data, it's really hard to make a determination. It could be a surge in violent crimes generally, we do not know yet," he said.
NCTC is yet to establish the cause of that trend which could range from a rise in serial killers to the use of drugs.
"When you look at some of the most bizarre killings, sometimes they are linked to serial killers, other studies talk of the copycat phenomenon. Understanding the psychology of these suspects needs experts," he explained.
