The rate of police officers engaging in crime has risen this year, a new report has said.
The report by the National Council on Administration of Justice for the ended financial year show that more cops engaged in reported criminal offences, forming part of general spike.
The report says 203 offences in which police officers were either involved as accomplices or as the main accused persons were recorded.
This is a rise from the previous year in which 131 offences involved cops.
In 2019-20, 85 crimes involving cops were recorded.
The number rose to 60 crimes in the year 2020-21 and 70 crimes in 2021-22.
The report said crime rates have generally increased, with 104,769 incidences recorded compared to 97,301 in the previous year.
Some of the crimes police have allegedly committed include human trafficking, actively engaging in violent criminal activities and loaning out firearms to gangs.
They also work in cahoots with criminals by knowingly turning a blind eye as armed criminals terrorise citizens, thereby enabling or acting as accomplices.
A Citizen TV exposé has in the past revealed allegations of police hiring uniforms and arms to criminals to perpetrate carjackings, muggings, armed robberies and break-ins.
In terms of processing the criminal cases in court, the report says, pending load increased by six per cent and the rationale given is that more such cases have been filed, outpacing the rate of their resolution.
“The number of pending criminal cases increased by six percent from 285,666 to 302,418 at the end of the review period,” the report says.
“Pendency growth is broadly attributed to filed cases remaining more than resolved cases over time.”
The issue of police criminality comes after the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and other civil society groups raised alarm over abductions, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.
