Child abductions down in an otherwise tragic year

Rescuers at the scene of an the accident involving a school bus near Karatu, Arusha Region, last May. Thirty-two pupils were among 35 people killed in the crash. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

Police report says there were only four abductions of children in 2017 as compared with 20 in the previous year

Arusha. Residents of northern regions were shocked last year when two children were kidnapped in Arusha, brutally killed and dumped in an abandoned pit latrine.

Two others had been released after ransom was paid. The tragic death of the two children in September happened only four months after a horrific bus accident that left more than 30 Lucky Vincent pupils dead.

But despite the fatal kidnappings a recently released police report shows that the year 2017 had some of the lowest incidents of child abductions in Arusha.

The Police Crime and Traffic Accidents annual report says the Arusha Region had only four abductions of children in 2017 as compared to 20 the previous year. None of the 2016 kidnappings was fatal, the report adds.

Rape and sodomy on the rise

The report, released by the regional police boss, Mr Charles Mkumbo, indicated, however, that there was a slight increase in cases of rape and sodomy in 2017 compared to the previous year.

According to Mr Mkumbo, 62 cases of sodomy were recorded in the region last year compared to 58 in 2016.

There were also 149 incidences of rape in 2017, a slight increase from 144 cases reported to the police during the previous year.

However, the RPC did not discuss the armed robberies which were notorious in Arusha in the past but which decreased sharply from 65 incidences in 2015 to only nine in 2016.

Neither did he give statistics on theft of vehicles and motor cycles which dropped significantly from a total of 494 in 2015 to 118 in 2016.

Despite decreasing incidents of armed robberies, the region has witnessed rampant misuse of firearms.

Traffic offences decrease

Meanwhile, Collections of fines from traffic offences in Arusha region dropped last year to Sh3.8 billion compared to Sh4.7 billion in 2016 but was slightly above the 2015 collection of Sh3.2 billion, a police annual report indicates.