President Uhuru Kenyatta is this morning scheduled to finally commission the multi-billion shillings National Police Service Forensic Laboratory at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters on Kiambu road.

DCI boss George Kinoti said yesterday the President had confirmed the event that had initially been slated for February 28, before it was postponed at the 11^th hour without any explanation.

Kinoti says the lab is expected to assist the police build a crime database, which includes fingerprint and DNA records.

 “We are now all set to go. The President has confirmed of his presence and everything has been set in readiness for the big occasion,” Kinoti disclosed.

Complex crimes

As a result of today’s ceremony, the DCI has asked individuals seeking for the police clearance certificates, popularly known as certificate of good conduct, to visit the nearest Huduma Centre in Nairobi for their fingerprints to be taken.

“The Directorate of Criminal Investigations notifies all applicants for the Police Clearance Certificate (Certificate of Good Conduct), scheduled to have their fingerprints taken at DCI headquarters tomorrow Monday, June 13, that the premises shall remain out of bounds because of a significant national event,” the DCI posted on its official twitter page.

 Yesterday, all senior DCI officers gathered at the Mazingira House headquarters for final briefing ahead of today’s occasion.

Kinoti said the opening of the laboratory would be a great milestone in the DCI’s efforts to solve complex criminal cases, particularly murder, rape and cyber fraud among others.

“The lab will alter the way we conduct our research and enable us expedite investigations as well as assist us solve some of the most complex crimes. It will be a game changer in the fight against crime,” an excited Kinoti told People Daily yesterday by telephone.

Kenya’s top detective said the new laboratory would employ investigative techniques utilised in the recognition, collection, preservation and analysis of private evidence.

Kinoti says the lab will be a game changer in the Criminal Justice System since it will among other things ensure court cases are backed by well-documented evidence, enhancing chances of successful prosecutions.

“We will be able to do proper investigations; we will back up what we have done with scientific proof,” he said.

Wrongful convictions

The lab, according to Kinoti shall handle DNA profiling, solve drug related and sex crimes, weapon testing and ballistics, cybercrimes and document examination.

“Failures to effectively gather evidence in the criminal investigation process can have serious consequences like unsolved crimes, unsuccessful prosecution, unpunished offenders and wrongful convictions,” Kinoti says.

He says most important aspects of criminal justice is forensic science, or the practice of scientifically examining physical evidence collected from the scene of crime or a person of interest in a crime.

Two of the most common crimes that are determined in the forensic science laboratories are drug-related and sex crimes.

The construction of the laboratory had stalled for years after it was embroiled in corruption in past regimes.