Concern as crime rates rise sharply since 2021
The only crimes for which fewer incidents were reported in the past year were homicide, traffic offences and theft of stock and vehicles.
What you need to know:
- The number of crimes reported to the police in the year to June 30, 2024 was 104,769, an increase on the 97,301 reported in the 2022/2023 financial year.
- The anti-graft watchdog investigated 2,187 cases, and referred 510 matters to public organisations with another 166 pending more information.
Serious crime has been on the rise for the past three years, and a government agency blames high unemployment for the trend.
Since 2021, the number of crimes reported to the police have been going up, according to a report by the National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ).
“All crime types have been rising gradually over time,” it says in the conclusion of the report.
NCAJ’s figures show that the rate of serious crimes dipped between 2019 and 2020 but has been rising ever since.
The number of crimes reported to the police in the year to June 30, 2024 was 104,769, an increase on the 97,301 reported in the 2022/2023 financial year.
The 97,301 was an increase on the 85,539 cases recorded in 2022, which was also higher than the 76,525 incidents reported in 2021.
The number of crimes reported to police stations across the country in 2020 was 80,212.
Some of the crimes tracked are robbery, offences against morality, economic crimes, stealing, theft by servant, criminal damage, drugs-related wrongdoings, corruption and offences committed by police officers.
Offences committed by tourists as well as those committed against persons and other penal code offences have also significantly increased.
The only crimes for which fewer incidents were reported were homicide, traffic offences and theft of stock and vehicles.
The NCAJ attributed the increase in crime to the country's high unemployment rate.
Regarding combating graft in the country, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) processed 5,255 cases in the last financial year. The anti-graft watchdog investigated 2,187 cases, and referred 510 matters to public organisations with another 166 pending more information.
The EACC has advised complainants on where to report 1,629 cases and terminated 637 matters.
“During the review period, the EACC forwarded 126 cases to the ODPP, an increase of 30 percent from the previous year (97),” the report stated.
Over the past five years, EACC has processed 27,011 cases with the number of reports submitted for investigations peaking at 2,187 in the 2023/2024 financial year compared to 1,952 in the previous year.
“This indicates that many corruption and economic crimes concerns are being flagged for investigation,” the report said.
The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa) processed 1,092 cases of police misconduct in the past financial year, a decrease from the 1,325 cases that were processed over the same period in the previous year.
Out of these cases, 77 police operations were monitored, 895 cases were investigated, and 120 were referred to the ODPP for prosecution.
Over the past year, the ODPP prosecuted 298,610 cases of alleged offences committed in the country, a slight decline from 299,483 in the previous year.
The NCAJ credited the reduction in the cases filed by the ODPP to increased awareness among key stakeholders in the criminal justice system, including the police, about the decision to charge and diversion guidelines.
A breakdown of these cases showed that criminal trials, standing at 276,898, accounted for the bulwark of the matters handled by the ODPP.
This is followed by criminal appeals (7,726), criminal applications (5,046), advice files (6,139) and complaints coming last with 2,801 cases.
A majority (72.7 percent) of the matters handled by the ODPP ended in convictions. Another 20.1 percent of these cases ended with discharge, while acquittals stood at 5.4 percent, diversion took up 1.4 percent and plea bargains 0.4 percent.
Pending cases still remain a thorn in the flesh of the judiciary with the 2023/2024 financial year recording 302,418 pending cases, up from 285,666 in the previous year.
The upward trajectory was also observed in the number of criminal cases filed in courts with the judiciary observing an increase from 253,878 in 2023 to 292,596 in the review period.
However, over the same period, more cases (263,980) were resolved compared to 231,656 in the preceding year.
The council noted that over the years, the number of cases filed in court has steadily increased with the exception of 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic when the numbers significantly dropped.
“Though at a slightly lower level, the resolved cases have remained in tandem with the growth of filed cases, demonstrating a positive reaction to supply of justice to increased demand for justice,” the report stated.
A further scrutiny in the judiciary established that the superior courts – the Court of Appeal and the High Court – have been getting significantly busier, with the number of filed cases increasing by 184 and 46 percent respectively.
The Court of Appeal received 1,171 cases in the 2023/24 financial year compared to 413 in the previous year, while the High Court received 22,385 compared to 15,305 in the 2022/2023 financial year.
Despite the High Court having a higher percentage, 79 percent, in resolving cases, it still has another 19,898 cases pending. However, it has resolved 631 cases, indicating a 39 percent clearance rate and has 3,809 pending cases.
Criminal cases filed in Magistrates’ Courts increased from 238,160 in 2023 to 268,582 in 2024 with the number of cases resolved in the review period standing at 244,848 and pending cases at 279,945.
The number of convicted prisoners as at June 30, 2024 was 35,336 made up of 33,774 males and 1,562 females. This number was a slight decrease from 35,557 in the previous year.
The number of un-convicted prisoners remained almost flat, clocking 26,579 from 26,358 in the previous year. Men accounted for the majority at 25,226 compared to 1,353 females.
Prisons in the country registered the exact number of prisoners in 2023 and 2024.
People sentenced for periods between one month and two years were the majority of those convicted, taking up 50,103 slots of the total 80,071 convicted prisoners as at the close of 2023.
Over the same period, those sentenced for periods of less than one month were 16,343, and those sentenced for periods above two years totalled 13,082. Life imprisonment convicts stood at 406, followed by 140 currently on the death row in 2023 with the report noting a tremendous increase of those sentenced to death in the review period as compared to 2022 where they were 94.
The male prison population with prior convictions greatly outnumbered the female population, with 14,059 males compared to 2,016 females.
The rate of recidivism rose by 11 percent for females compared to two percent for males.
The number of individuals in remand increased from 103,159 in 2022 to 167,990 in 2023.
