National

DCI forms elite team to tackle femicide

Director of Criminal Investigations, Mr. Mohamed Amin.

By Hassan Mohamed | Tuesday, January 30, 2024

In a bold move to combat the alarming rise of femicide in Kenya, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has assembled a special team of experts to expedite investigations and bring perpetrators to justice.

In a bold move to tackle the alarming surge in femicide, Kenya's Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has assembled a crack team of profilers and forensic experts to expedite investigations and bring perpetrators to swift justice. This critical issue has cast a long shadow over national security, as Director Mohamed Amin declared, "We must put an end to this menace with remarkable speed and definitive action."

Between 2021 and 2024, the DCI documented 94 cases of women and girls' killings, leading to the arraignment of 65 suspects. The newly formed team's immediate mandate is to fast-track pending investigations and hold accountable all those responsible.

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"There's a clear link between femicide and sexual violence," Mr. Amin emphasized, urging the public to be their eyes and ears. "We know these heinous crimes have perpetrators; let's expose them. Let's stand together to vanquish this evil."

Recent high-profile cases like the murders of Starlet Wahu and Rita Waeni, a university student dismembered after a horrific kidnapping, underscore the urgency of the DCI's initiative.

While official data on femicide remains scarce, independent organizations like Femicide Count Kenya paint a grim picture. They recorded 58 femicide deaths between January and October 2022, with that number skyrocketing to 152 in 2023 – the highest in five years. Investigative platforms estimate that this brutal trend claimed the lives of roughly 500 Kenyan women between 2017 and 2024.