The 2023 Global Organized Crime Index has ranked Kenya position sixteen out of 193 countries in the world for organized crime.
According to the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime survey, which was released on Wednesday, Kenya came fourth out of the 54 African countries.
Similarly, Kenya was top among the nine East African Countries. The report noted Kenya’s criminal network is dominated by smaller groups engaging in variety of illegal activities.
“Kenya’s criminal networks are dominated by smaller groups that engage in a variety of illegal activities, including drug trafficking, human trafficking, human smuggling, commodity smuggling, cattle rustling, extortion, burglary, robbery, money laundering, executions, and assassinations,” read part of the statement.
Additionally, the smaller groups in Kenya are said to have experience in a variety of illegal activities with an elevated level of corruption.
Additionally, the report revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the rise of cyber-dependent crime in Kenya, which has more than doubled since 2021.
In addition, Kenya’s digital transformation has led to an increase in cyber-dependent crimes such as data breaches.
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Notably the Healthcare systems, utility providers, insurance firms, schools, government organizations, and financial institutions are among the primary targets of cybercriminals.
Methodology Research
The Global Organized Crime Index model employed an alternative, commodity-driven assessment framework to measure illicit markets through a combination of scope and scale, value, and impact of fifteen criminal markets.
Moreover, in its research they used the structure and influence of five criminal actor types, together with the existence and capacity of countries to be resilient to organized crime, further measuring the outcomes across twelve resilience building blocks.
According to the Global Initiative survey, Kenya’s status of organized criminality score increased from 6.95 in 2021 to 7.02 in 2022.
“Kenya’s organized crimes resilience score improved by 0.13 to 5.33 in 2022 from the 5.21 score in 2021, making it the most resilient country in East Africa,” read part of the release
Further other African Countries at the top were Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and South Africa. The Democratic Republic of Congo topped with 7.35 while Nigeria came second with 7.28 and South Africa third with 7.18.
Globally, Myanmar had the highest criminality score of 8.15, followed by Colombia with 7.75 and Mexico with 7.57.
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According to the survey, “The global criminality score is 5.03 composed of the global criminal markets score of 4.48 and the global criminal actors score of 5.19 hence global resilience to organized crimes score is 4.81.”
Organized Crime Globally
The Global Organized Crime Index 2023 has further revealed the continuing rise of organized crime globally, with 83% of the world’s population living in conditions of high criminality.
“Levels of criminality are increasing worldwide while resilience measures are falling short of meeting the threat.”
What’s more, the survey noted a decrease in crime amongst people living within low power.
“Conversely, the number of people living in conditions of low resilience to organized crime globally has declined significantly now, 62% of the world’s population, compared to 79.4% in 2021,” read part of the report.
