NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 25 – The rate of violent crime in the country has significantly reduced in the past couple of weeks, police said Wednesday.
Commissioner of Police Mathew Iteere said cases of kidnapping, violent robbery and other related incidents were on the decline but did not give tangible figures to back his assertion.
“As compared to where we have come from, I can say that we are now doing quite well. The crime levels in the country are at manageable levels,” he said and singled out kidnapping cases as the worst type of crime which threatened the country’s security status.
“We had a number of incidences (of kidnappings) which were a bit worrying. This has been brought down to manageable levels… we have now stayed for about three weeks without a single incident of that nature,” he said.
Three months ago, up to four cases of kidnapping were reported particularly in Nairobi and a six-year-old boy was killed three days after he went missing from their home in Komarock estate.
“The situation was worse. Things are far much better now because we no longer hear cases of kidnapping. Other violent crimes have also reduced significantly,” Mr Iteere told reporters at the Kasarani police during a familiarisation tour of stations in the division.
The commissioner said cases of robberies and carjacking were also on the decline and revealed that only three or less cases were being reported daily as compared to 15 or more which occurred previously.
Previous statistics showed that Nairobi and Central Provinces recorded a high number of such crimes but the commissioner said the situation had now changed.
“Now we only receive reports of three cases per day as compared to a few weeks ago. This tells us that we are not doing badly,” he said.
“We are committed to make the situation even better,” he said.
Mr Iteere said police were also committed to restore sanity on all public roads in the country to minimise the rate of road carnage.
Traffic department estimates show that at least twenty people are killed weekly in road accidents which occur in various parts of the country, particularly on the highways of Nairobi-Mombasa, Nairobi-Eldoret, Nairobi-Nyeri and other areas in the country.
He said he had directed all traffic commandants to sustain traffic crackdowns during the festive season.
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