Police Blame AI, Recycled Clips Amid Panic Over Missing Children

The National Police Service (NPS) has dismissed claims of a surge in child disappearance cases in Kenya.

In an interview on Tuesday, May 26, NPS Spokesperson Michael Muchiri attributed growing public panic to increased awareness and rapid spread of information online.

"We don’t have a surge; it is only that we have a public that is more conscious, more aware, and then we have the spread of information, which is faster," he said.

Muchiri warned about the role of artificial intelligence and old clips being reshared online, saying this had contributed significantly to public anxiety.

"We have the intrusion of AI and fakes. Some of the clips we have seen in recent times, you find that this is something that is recycled; it has been seen at some other point," he added.

Muchiri discouraged the trend, saying misleading online narratives risk creating unnecessary fear among Kenyans by giving the impression that the country is facing a crisis involving missing children.

"It would place the country at a point where we suddenly start realizing or thinking that there is a surge, that we have an emergency in these cases, that is not the case at all. The best approach when you are talking about these things is to have the calmness and the facts before us," he further said.

Elsewhere, Muchiri provided statistics on reported missing children cases, noting that the numbers have actually declined compared to previous years.

"Official police records this year talk about 139 cases. In 2025, we had 754 cases that were officially reported. In 2024, we had 1276 cases that were reported," he noted.

Muchiri revealed that some of the cases reported this year are either before the courts or still under active investigation by detectives.

"For this year, we have 41 cases that are pending under the jurisdiction of the court. We have 52 cases that are under investigation by the police department," he concluded.

This comes a week after the Ministry of Gender and Heritage has launched a 90-day Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) targeting the growing cases of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in the Central Region.

In a statement on Thursday, May 14, Gender and Heritage Cabinet Secretary Hannah Wendot said the government had already directed the immediate implementation of the programme in the region.

"I have directed that a 90-day Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) be immediately undertaken to intensify interventions against the rising cases of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in the Central Region," the statement read.

Wendot noted that the government is seeking to eliminate SGBV cases in the region within the next 11 months through sustained collaboration between agencies and communities.

She explained that the initiative will focus on prevention, enforcement, protection, and strengthening community response mechanisms.

"I further directed that all relevant Government agencies work towards declaring the Central Region SGBV-free within the next 11 months through sustained prevention, enforcement, protection and community response measures," the statement added.

As part of the plan, the ministry has also established a multi-agency coordination framework that will operate from the regional level down to counties and sub-counties.

The team will include security agencies, Children Services officers, local administrators, and other stakeholders tasked with responding to SGBV and child protection cases.

"Established a multi-agency team at the regional level, to be cascaded to county and sub-county levels, bringing together security agencies, Children Services, local administration and relevant stakeholders to strengthen coordination and response against SGBV and crimes against children," the statement further read.