Official crime statistics have revealed that Nairobi, Kiambu and Meru are the most dangerous places to live.
This is because their crime rates are the highest in the country.
Provisional data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) indicates that they had the highest number of crimes reported to the police in 2024.
Nairobi City recorded 9,717 crimes reported, followed by Kiambu (8,865) and Meru (5,487). The figure for crimes recorded in the capital, however, could be slightly higher as Railways Police (108) and Kenya Airport Police Unit (87) are listed separately as fully-fledged police command stations separate from Nairobi City.
Other top crime hotspots in the country are Machakos (4,028), Kilifi (2,725) and Mombasa (2,689).
Marsabit police command station recorded the highest percentage increase in crimes reported in 2024 t 41 per cent.
Safest: Wajir, Mandera, Samburu and Lamu
Meanwhile, Wajir (358), Mandera (373), Lamu (401), Samburu (414) and Tana River (436) recorded the lowest number of crime reports.
Generally, there was a decrease in all crimes reported to the police except for criminal damages, offences involving police officers and other penal code offences which increased by 0.8, 36.7 and 16 per cent.
"Traffic offences and offences involving tourists had the most significant declines in 2024, decreasing by 58.4 per cent and 42.6 per cent, respectively. The number of other offences against persons and stealing jointly accounted for 42.0 per cent of all the crimes reported in 2024," KNBS says.
Gangs
A separate 2025 survey by the National Crime Research Centre (NCRC) recently revealed that Mombasa has the highest concentration of criminals in the country.
The coastal hub accounted for at least 73 active criminal gangs of the total 309 mapped in the devolved units.
It was followed by Nairobi with 56 and Kilifi finishing with 47. These three counties alone accounted for over half of the total gangs identified in the study.
