New report reveals crime rise, sexual violence hotspots

There is a likelihood that a woman will be raped in Nairobi, Nakuru and Meru.

Further, you need to have a keen eye, watching your children against sex pests again in Nairobi, Nakuru and Kisumu.

The grim reality of the country’s decaying sexual morals is contained in a report released by the National Council of Administration of Justice (NCAJ), indicating that morality offences had spiked from last year’s numbers.

According to figures from the NCAJ, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and morality offences are on the rise, registering 32,695 cases nationally.

Yet the burden of these offences is distributed unevenly, concentrated heavily in dense urban corridors while registering markedly lower counts across the arid pastoral north.

Among the offences documented, defilement emerged as the single most prevalent charge nationwide, with Nairobi, Nakuru, Meru, and Kiambu driving the highest tallies and flagging these areas as acute risk zones for minors. In western Kenya, Kisumu was also singled out alongside the capital as a flashpoint requiring heightened vigilance.

By contrast, sparsely populated northern and pastoral frontier counties reported vastly lower figures. Isiolo recorded just two rape cases, while Lamu, Samburu, Wajir, and West Pokot each reported five or fewer. Remote counties such as Mandera, Baringo, Garissa, and Turkana recorded zero formal charges for incest or sexual assault.

The country recorded 7,330 offences against morality in the 2024/2025 financial year, while 2025/2026, there were 11,566 recorded cases.

Overall, serious crimes, which included the morality one, had shot up by 59.5 per cent, with stealing (28,459), dangerous drugs (12,225), and offences against persons such as battery, assaults (26,532) topping the list of the reasons why a Kenyan will end up being a guest of the State.

“ The increase may reflect changes in crime incidence, reporting, police detection and case-recording practices,” the report reads in part.

 The report indicated that Nairobi alone had 363 defilement cases and 79 rape cases. At the same time, sexual assault cases were 47 and indecent acts were 52.  In total, Nairobi had 3004 cases of sexual and gender-based violence out of the 32,695 recorded in the country.

Nakuru, on the other hand had  267 defilement cases, 49 rape, 16 sexual assault cases, seven incest cases, indecent acts (12) and a total of 1475 cases.

The third county in the red, was Meru with a total 1925 cases. The highest number of incidents is defilement, with 217 cases, 51 rape, four sexual assault, seven incest and 12 indecent act.

Kimabu comes in fourth with 208 cases of defilement, 55 of rape, 22 sexual assault, 10 incest, 27 indecent acts and a total of 1772 cases.

From the data, a woman is also likely to be raped in Bungoma, Kakamega, Kilifi, Kisumu, Mombasa, which also recorded more than 200 cases.

Meanwhile, other counties which had the highest number of rape incidents included Bungoma, Busia, Bomet, Kakamega, Kajiado, Kirinyaga, Kisii, Kisumu, Kitui, Machakos, Makueni, Migori,Narok, Siaya, and Uasin Gishu, which had more than 20 cases.

 On Sexual assault alone, Mombasa stood out with 62 cases, followed by Nairobi and Nakuru, which had 47 and 16 incidents, respectively.

Cases of parents defiling their own children were in Homabay (21), followed by Uasin Gishu which had 16 cases, and Kisii with 12 cases.

The data also indicated that a woman is likely to be groped or indecently touched in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Nyeri. Out of the 394 indecent act cases recorded in the last one year, the trio had 52,32 and 29 cases.

On the flip side, counties such as Isiolo, Samburu, and Wajir are green for children as they recorded very few cases of defilement. The three counties had 19, 15 and 12 cases.

At the same time, only two women were reported to have been raped in Isiolo in the last one year, Lamu and Samburu had four cases, Tana River, seven, and Tharaka Nithi, eight and Wajiri and West Pokot five cases.

Further, there were no sexual assault cases in Samburu,  Mandera, Kericho, Elgeyo Marakwet, Baringo and West Pokot.

Also, Baringo did not record any cases of incest, alongside Garissa, Mandera, Turkana, Tharaka Nithi, Wajir and West Pokot.

On indecent acts,  Wajir, Turkana, Samburu, Kwale, Isiolo has a single case each.

“ Nairobi County accounted for 3,004 cases, followed by Meru (1,925) and Kiambu (1,772). Defilement is the most widespread offence across the counties, totalling 5,942 cases,” the report continued to read.

The NCAJ report also indicated that car theft had surged by more than 1000 cases when compared to last year. There were 1355 reported cases previously, but the same had risen to 2425 cases.

 At the same time, break-ins had increased by 3000 cases, with 8771 cases being recorded and stock theft had also shot up by close to 2000 cases, with a record 4007.

Data also revealed that more Kenyans are getting into robbery, with a rise of 4000 cases. During the 2024, 2025 financial year, there were 3494 cases recorded while this year, there are 7440 cases.

More worrying is the number of homicide cases, which have almost trippled. Data indicates that last year, there were 2914 cases while this year, the cases were at 6112 mark.

 Theft by servant had also increased by around 1000 cases, with 2425 cases being recorded from the previous 1351 cases.

Data also shows that more police officers are getting into crime. The number of cases recorded had doubled from 242 cases to 442 cases this year.

“ During the year under review, all crime categories recorded an increase compared to the previous year. The most notable increase was recorded in other Penal Code offences, which rose from 15,123 to 28,336 cases, followed by stealing from 17,013 to 28,459, and then Offences concerning dangerous drugs, which rose from 7,319 to 12,225,” the document continued to read.