While presiding over the official opening of the cause at the DCI Academy, DCI Deputy Director Ireri Kamwende urged the participants to utilize the opportunity and enhance their investigative knowledge, while emphasizing that fingerprint identification is one of the most fundamental skills in the identification of suspects and linking them to a crime scene.
The high-level training brings together participants from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and Kenya Defence Forces and is tailored towards enhancing the participants’ capacity to investigate cases involving fingerprint identification.
Kamwended urged the participants to pass on the knowledge they will have acquired to their counterparts in their respective postings, to improve service delivery to the people we serve.
On her part, the Commandant DCI Academy, Ms. Gatiria Mboroki welcomed our counterparts from Kenya Defense Forces to the institution and called upon the participants to take full advantage of the course.
Also, the present was a representative from KDF, Col J. S. Hirbo, who stressed the need for the training, while adding that fingerprint biometrics was a crucial science in the identification of persons.
He also called for more collaboration between the two security agencies in capacity building for better service delivery.
Fingerprint identification is vital in the custody and maintenance of Criminal Records.
The collection of fingerprints is under the Criminal Identification Bureau, a Section of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), and the National Police Service (NPS).
It was first established in 1909 alongside the construction of the Mathare deport.
British government operationalized the unit in 1926 and used the records to search and identify suspects and accused persons.
The scale was due to increased resistance from Kenyans who targeted the white settlers.
Since its establishment, over two million records associated with criminal cases have been recorded.