Nairobi — The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) National Forensic Laboratory is set to officially be opened on Monday.
President Uhuru Kenyatta will preside over the opening of the at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters which has already started operations.
Officials said it is expected to fast-track investigations of serious crimes including terrorism, murder, robbery with violence, cyber-crime and rape, among others, besides unravelling several cases, some of which had been difficult to crack.
DCI boss George Kinoti termed the developments historic.
“The dream for the country to have a National Forensic facility that would help in solving crime scientifically has been elusive for many years, even after successive governments invested billions of shillings in the project, the DCI stated.
A statement on its twitter account indicated that “every attempt was marred by corruption, gobbling up billions of shillings that went to the pockets of a few, thereby killing the dream of Kenyan taxpayers.”
“The Forensic Laboratory had been identified as a security flagship project under Vision 2030 and was one of the projects to be completed under the 1st Medium Term plan 2008-2012. Despite being classified under the security, peace building and conflict management sector which plays a critical and strategic role in achieving the targets of vision 2030, the project failed to materialize.”
Over the last nine years, the government has invested heavily in the construction of the physical structure and installed the relevant state of the art equipment, in the 10 specialized scientific labs
Qualified detectives in various academic scientific fields such as Computer Science, Pure Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, Biochemistry, Physics and Information Technology among others, have been deployed to offer their professional services in their respective areas of specialization.
“This is therefore a historic national achievement that DCI cannot celebrate alone, but with all Kenyans and stakeholders specifically within the criminal justice system. Today, we bring you a comprehensive coverage of the Commissioning of this critical state of the art facility, that is comparable to none in Africa and which is the regional seat of Forensic investigations,” the DCI further stated.