Revealed: Rift Valley and Western leading in gang hotspots

The number of serious crimes in the country has shot up by almost double.

 A report by the National Council on Administration of Justice (NCAJ) paints a grim picture of the country's security, revealing that in the last year, 157,396 serious cases were registered, compared with 85,539 in the same period during the 2021-2022 electioneering period.

Serious crimes include offences such as murder, manslaughter, robbery with violence, sexual and gender based violence, grievous harm, transnational crimes such as children and drug trafficking and financial fraud. and organised crimes.

This comes as Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja said that goonism and hooliganism in the country are not spontaneous. Instead, the police boss said that goons are being hired by politicians to disrupt political rallies and intimidate opponents deliberately.

In his speech read by the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Mohamed Amin, Kanja stated that at least 1800 persons have so far been arrested for engaging in goonism.

The IG also pointed out that there are 109 organised criminal gangs in the country, with Rift Valley and Western Kenya being the hotspots, with the highest concentration of the gangs.

“It is important to note that this new trend of goons and goonism is not spontaneous mob violence. These are basically paid criminals that have been hired to disrupt rallies, to intimidate voters, to displace families and to seize land and other properties forcefully,” said Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Mohamed Amin in a speech read on behalf of Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja.

He added that over the months, the trend has escalated around rallies, with criminal gangs being central to political violence and disruptions in the country. He insisted that these are deliberate acts and there are sponsors behind them.

“This is unacceptable. We have made significant, measurable progress in the fight against these criminal cartels. Between January and August 2026, we have arrested and arraigned before court 1827 suspects linked to goonism and other organised criminal activities,” said Amin, adding that they were nabbed out of intelligence-led operations.

The DCI boss stated that Trans-Nzoia alone recorded 491 arrests.

It emerged that previously, there were only 89 organised criminal gangs which had been gazetted by the government.

The DCI boss said that the new strategy involves demanding accountability from regional commanders for the gangs arrested in their areas.

“We are not merely arresting the foot soldiers. The success of our operations includes dismantling recruiters, financiers and political sponsors who have funded these youths. I affirm there will be no sacred cows,” he continued.

Amin was speaking during the launch of the National Council on Administration of Justice (NCAJ) reports for the year 2025-2026.

 In terms of war against corruption, the report indicated that courts received 2,852 corruption-related cases and resolved 2,909, representing a case clearance rate of 102 per cent.

At the same time, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission recovered assets valued at Sh 3.63 billion, preserved assets worth Sh 7.3 billion.

The anti-graft watchdog further filed 46 civil suits valued at approximately Sh 14.1 billion to facilitate the recovery of illicitly acquired wealth and illegally allocated properties.

EACC CEO Abdi Ahmed Mohamud said that the decision to pursue civil forfeiture was encouraged by the fast pace through which the cases are determined instead of going for criminal processes and then filing for forfeiture.

“Our strategic direction is to concentrate on the preventive aspect of addressing corruption as opposed to enforcement. Enforcement continues, but we have realized that if we do more prevention specifically systems reviews and corruption risk assessments, we are likely to yield long term results as opposed to an event that has happened. As a country, we need to think about long term approaches, about forfeitures of assets as opposed to prosecutions and there is a very good reason for that,” said Ahmed.

Chief Justice Martha Koome on her end said that the NCAJ had achieved an 83.23 per cent score in terms of implementation of the strategic plan.

Among the notable milestones, she said,  were the advancement of the People-Centred Strategic Guiding Framework, strengthening of Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms, development of the Anti-Corruption Strategic Guiding Framework and introduction of a framework for greening Kenya's justice system.