With rising cases of women joining terrorist groups as Al- Shabaab and ISIS in Kenya, it has emerged that the motivating factors to such decisions are poverty and illiteracy.
According to a recent report dubbed ‘Community Service and Probation for Women‘that was conducted in Garissa, Mombasa and Nakuru counties, at least 61 percent of women who were handed non-custodial sentences between the year 2013 and 2015 had gone beyond primary schools only, with a few of them completing primary education and only 21 percent having gone to secondary school.
The report submitted by Thailand Institute of Justice, disclosed that four percent of the prime offenders were clerical officers, while three percent worked for the national and county governments.
It was further revealed that a greater number of these women were low-income earners.
As expected, minimal or lack of education limits women from getting access to job opportunities to enable them earn a decent living.
Unfortunately, the overall number of women criminals given non-custodial sentences in Kenyan courts has been steadily rising.
In 2013 alone, 38,585 Probation and Community Service Orders were delivered to both male and female criminals.
The number rose to 51,604 in the year 2015, with the sharp increase being attributed to the increasing numbers of women engaging in crime.