Report says women outdo men in violent crimes

A larger percentage of women than men are in remand prisons for violent crimes such as murder, grievous harm and robbery.

An audit report released on Tuesday, also says that more women are in custody for petty offences that could have attracted non-custodial sentences.

According to the Kenya Criminal Justice System Audit, which was commissioned by the National Council on Administration of Justice, some 49 per cent of women in custody were charged with violent crimes followed by property crimes such as stealing and theft by servant, at 15 per cent.

For men, 32 per cent were charged with violent crimes, 27 per cent with property-related offences and 16 per cent with sexual offences.

Of the Kenyans in remand, 77 per cent are at the prime of their income-earning potential — between 13 and 35.

The placing on remand of so many potentially productive people who may not be found guilty affects development and is costly to the government, the audit report says.

If the State limited itself to holding only people accused of violent offences, the number of men in remand would drop by 67 per cent and women by 50 per cent, it says.

Also revealed was that most serious offences for which people were held the longest in remand had the lowest conviction rate — five per cent for sexual offences and 13 per cent for robbery with violence. The report says a high number of petty offenders are being remanded in prisons. One in 10 cases are nuisance offences such as causing a disturbance or being drunk and disorderly.

LACK OF LICENCES

The audit also revealed that remand time could be as much as 3,487 days.

Legal Resources Foundation executive director Janet Munywoki noted that from the report, fewer men than women were in prison for offences like hawking and lack of licences.

The audit also says the time a suspect is arrested, produced in court and sentenced is too long and such a prolonged stay in prison stretches resources.

A total of 417 cases were pending for more than 36 months as of September 1, 2016, while 1,012 cases were 12 and 36 months late. The survey also says that 5,666 cases were six to 12 months later.

Ms Munywoki was speaking at a breakfast meeting on prison reforms. Police were urged to grant cash bail to minimise the number being remanded in prison while the Judiciary should impose affordable bail or fine and speed up trials.

Courts were also urged to allow suspects to pay fines in instalments as many were unable to raise the huge amounts and ended up languishing in jail. The issue of life imprisonment was raised with some panellists insisting that it should mean what it means, namely the ‘whole life’.

In Uganda, life imprisonment means imprisonment of 20 years while Section 51 of South Africa’s Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1997 prescribes the minimum sentences for other types of murders, rapes and robberies to 25, 15 and 10 years respectively.

Such prisoners are granted parole after serving the minimum sentence.