Interior PS Dr. Raymond Omollo on Tuesday met Ms Dimanche Sharon, the Chief of Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Nairobi where the two explored programs supported by IOM in Kenya, key among them, existing framework to address transnational organized crime and capacity building for border officials to better manage operations at our Points of Entry and Exit (POEs).
The meeting comes against a backdrop of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime Report on Kenya released on 26th November, showing the country is a near hub for terrorism, human trafficking, and money laundering.
The findings in the report titled “Africa Organized Crime Index 2023, Increasing Criminality, Growing Vulnerability” done by ENACT (Enhancing Africa’s Response to Transnational Organized Crime) is attributing this state of affairs to widespread insecurity and declining democratic order.
”The burgeoning migrant smuggling and human trafficking industries can pose a threat to national security through organized crime and movement of contrabands, including weapons and drugs,” PS Omollo said.
”We explored the programs supported by IOM in Kenya, key among them, the existing framework to address transnational organized crime and capacity building for border officials to better manage operations at our Points of Entry and Exit (POEs),” he added.
In the study, Kenya falls within the high criminality, low resilience segment, with an average criminality score of 7.02 out of 10 and scores above average for all criminal markets assessed by the Index.
It has a score of 8.0 in human trafficking, human smuggling (7.5); extortion and protection racketeering (7.0); arms trafficking (7.5); trade in counterfeit goods (7.0); heroin trade (7.5); cocaine trade (6.0); cannabis trade (6.5); synthetic drug trade (5.5); cyber dependent crimes (8.0); and financial crimes (7.5).
