Poverty, illiteracy pushing Kenyan women into criminal activities

More women are engaging in crime due to poverty and illiteracy, a new report says.

At least 61 per cent of those handed non-custodial sentences between 2013 and 2015 had not gone beyond primary school. Only a few of them completed their primary education.

Twenty-one per cent had attended up to secondary school, says the report titled 'Community Service and Probation for Women.'

The report by Thailand Institute Justice said four per cent of the offenders were clerical officers; 3 per cent of these worked for government.

"Most of them were low-income earners working in the informal sector including domestic work, hairdressing or selling cheap items such as household goods, food and drinks," read the report released on Monday.

"Lack of or minimal education limits women from accessing opportunities to earn a decent living and explains, to a large extent, the economic hardship they experience," it added.

The overall number of offenders given non-custodial sentences in Kenya has been rising steadily.

Non-custodial sentences involve putting an offender on probation or committing them to community service without pay instead of jailing them. This has been used to ease congestion in prisons that already have an extra 55,000 convicts.

In 2013, some 38,585 Probation Orders (POs) and Community Service Orders (CSOs) were issued to both male and female offenders. The number rose to 51,604 in 2015 due to the increasing number of women engaging in crime. "It is worth noting the figure includes women serving one-day CSOs," the report said.

At least 97 female offenders were interviewed in Nairobi, Bungoma, Kisii, Mombasa, Nakuru, Nyeri, Kapsabet, Makindu and Garissa.