Autopsy Findings on Prevalence, Age and Sex Distribution of Victims, Mechanisms, Contexts and Perpetrators of Homicide in Nairobi City, Kenya

Background: Homicide is a major global public health concern which is disproportionately prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa.Unfortunately, there is inadequate data to inform the required context-appropriate interventions in Kenya.Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the prevalence, age and sex distribution, mechanisms, contexts and perpetrators of homicide in Nairobi City, Kenya.Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive autopsy study undertaken at Nairobi City Mortuary over a period of one year from June 1, 2009-May 31, 2010.Information on age, sex, mechanism, contexts and perpetrators was provided by the next of kin and police officers.The prevalence was based on estimated population of Nairobi city at 3.7 million from the 2009 census.The data were recorded on standardized data sheets, entered into and managed by Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) to generate descriptive statistics.It was presented by tables.Results: Over the period, 2278 cases of violent death underwent autopsy examination.Out of these, 990 (43.5%) were due to homicide.For a population of about 3.7 million residents, this gave a crude prevalence of 26.8/100,000 population with a confidence interval of 95%.The mean age of the victims was 26.5 years (range 12 -59 years).The most affected age group was 20 -29 (463; 46.8%) followed by 30 -39 (361; 36.5%)years.Victims were predominantly (950; 96%) male.Most frequent mechanism was firearms (479; 48.4%) and blunt force objects (454; 45.9%), perpetrated by policemen (455; 57.6%), mob justice (260; 33.0%) and intimate partner (59; 7.5%) in the contexts of robbery (477; 48.4%), theft (426; 43.0%) and domestic violence (59; 6.0%).Conclusion: Homicide is highly prevalent in Nairobi City, Kenya.It predominantly affects young males, is perpetrated by