DOI: http://doi.org/10.47743/jss-2022-68-2-4
Abstract: The present paper explores the challenges of procuring forensic evidence in Kenya and the impact of those challenges on the criminal justice system. In particular, this article explicates that the effective administration of criminal justice in Kenya partly, and importantly, relies on forensic science. With a growing population nearing fifty million people, coupled with the threat of terrorist attacks, the Kenyan government has every good reason to enhance its surveillance and forensic capabilities not only in the service of its population, but also in the service of criminal justice. Although the challenges in procuring forensic evidence in Kenya fall in the cracks of political, institutional, professional, ethical and cultural, it remains to the good sense of the Kenyan government to be able to mitigate these challenges by enhancing the capacities and capabilities of key dockets such as the national security and the Ministry of Health. This is because these two dockets are critical for their forensic science services and, hence their interconnection with the criminal justice system.
Keywords: Forensic science, law, crime, and criminal justice system.
References
Cross N., Criminal Law & Criminal Justice: An Introduction, Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London, Sage Publications Ltd., 2010
Inman K, Rudin N., Principles and Practice of Criminalistics: The Profession of Forensic Science, N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, Florida, CRC Press LLC, 2000
Fish J.T., Stout R.N., Wallace E.W., Practical Crime Scene Investigations for Hot Zones, Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis Group LLC, 2011
Kiely T.F., Forensic evidence: science and the criminal law, 2000 N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, Florida. CRC Press LLC, 2001
Lawless C., Forensic Science: A sociological introduction, New York, Routledge, 2016
Maithil B.P. , Physical Evidence in Criminal Investigation and Trials, Delhi: Selective and Scientific Books, 2012
Munguti R., dated 29 June 2017. "Report reveals what killed Mutula Kilonzo". Daily Nation, [Online] at https://nation.africa/kenya/news/report-reveals-what-killed-mutula-kilonzo--417188?view=htmlamp
Olumbe A. O. K., Forensic Medicine in Kenya: A Personal View, East African Medical Journal, Vol. 77, No. 1, January 2000
Roux C.P. , Talbote-Wright B., Robertson J., Crispino F. and Ribaux O., The end of the (forensic science) world as we know it? The example of trace evidence, Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences, August, 2015, https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0260
Thurman J.T., Practical Bomb Scene Investigation, Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis Group, 2006
Trestrail J.H., Criminal Poisoning Investigational Guide for Law Enforcement, Toxicologists, Forensic Scientists, and Attorneys, 2nd Ed., Riverview Drive, Suite 208 Totowa, New Jersey: Humana Press Inc., 2007
Wecht C.H. and Rago J.T. (Eds), Forensic Science and Law: Investigative Applications in Criminal, Civil, and Family Justice, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 2006