Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has revealed that the number of cases file in courts in 2017 decreased by 25.6 percent from 462,792 in 2016 to 344,180. Is this a sign of criminals walking free?
The numbers further state that the disposed of cases dropped 26.6 percent from 426,603 in 2016 to 313,075 in 2017 while those of the pending cases increased by 6.2 percent from 499,341 the previous year to 530,446 in 2017.
With things like the National Youth Service saga, the Galana and Mwea Irrigation Scheme scandal, Afya House corruption, land grabbing, buildings collapsing and owners not brought to justice, drunk driving, rape cases, robbery with violence to name a few, one would expect the Kenyan prisons to be full of perpetrators of these vices. But no, we have courts that make decisions for us, but are they doing enough? Are the numbers lying?
Before you make a judgment, let’s acknowledge the fact that the cases are decreasing, but the concern is that there are so many injustices going on right now and the common Mwananchi is suffering. From mismanagement of public funds, extrajudicial killings, cartels taking advantage of farmers, consumers being sold expired and counterfeit products, to unscrupulous health practices that are affecting the citizens, saying all is not well would be an understatement.
Kenya is among the countries in Africa where justice is sometimes slow and unfair. The courts, as it would appear, are seemingly lenient with violent offenders walking out of them with smirks of triumph on their faces.
Whether someone will be prosecuted in Kenya, as it were, doesn’t seem to depend on the conspicuous evidence provided but the pockets of the involved parties. Corruption runs from the top to the bottom, and if you don’t agree with me, you are either too blind to see or just ignoring what is in front of you.
Some Acts of the constitution are plainly ignored. Take for example the Sexual Offences Act. It was meant to be a solution to a vice where adults abuse minors, but how many cases of rape and killing of the victims are reported? How many have been brought to justice?
Cases of defilement are reported in the news and the social media every day but they hardly make it to the court. This clearly shows that the law itself serves no purpose if it cannot uphold its end of bringing justice!
Right there at the top, leading the pack of criminals are some of our leaders, who themselves have no clue what the people they are representing want. All they care about is how to fatten themselves, get sick and fly abroad for treatment.
Politicians are misusing their offices to get away with serious offenses. They are dodgy, have money stacked away in foreign banks and their mattresses, and they always win their cases through bails and bonds.
The state of human rights in Kenya is worse. There is nowhere to run. The oppressed continue to watch, and for all they care, some wish there was a way they could line up the offenders and lock them in prison for eternity. That way, the world might be a better place.