Tag: British Army Training Unit in Kenya (BATUK)

British Soldiers Accused of More Abuses in Kenya: What We Know

A Kenyan parliamentary report has accused British troops training in the country of widespread killings, sexual abuse and human rights and environmental abuses, following years of accumulated complaints from local communities.

The report, published on Wednesday, found that serious misconduct by British soldiers caused them to be viewed as something of an “occupying force” by local people.

For the past 60 years, British soldiers in the British Army Training Unit in Kenya (BATUK) have routinely trained in the East African nation, favoured for its temperate weather and realistic combat scenarios. However, they have attracted rising numbers of accusations of gross violations, ranging from killings to neglectful disposal of military grade chemicals. The most notorious case was the murder of a 21-year-old Kenyan woman, Agnes Wanjiru, which gained international media attention.

Community activists who have for years sought redress in Kenyan courts told Al Jazeera the report’s publication represented an “enormous victory” not just for Kenya, but for other African countries which host foreign military bases on their territory, but are wary of regulating them.

“The Kenyan parliament has demonstrated that the British Army is not above the law,” said James Mwangi, founder of the grassroots advocacy group, Africa Centre for Corrective and Preventive Action (ACCPA), which has been at the forefront of bringing community grievances to Kenyan courts, and which advised lawmakers during their investigation.

“The impunity that has been perpetrated by these forces has been appalling. The world has seen that African parliaments can take measures to combat injustices by these forces, and Kenya has become the first country in Africa to do such a thing,” he added.

Here’s what we know about the report, the most serious allegations against the British troops, and what will happen next:

Soldiers are seen during a training session under the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK), at a camp in Laikipia, Kenya, September 30, 2018 [File: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters]

What is BATUK?

BATUK (British Army Training Unit in Kenya) is a permanent training force based in Nanyuki, central Kenya. It has been stationed there since Kenyan independence from the UK in 1963 and has about 100 permanent staff and some 280 rotating short-term troops from the United Kingdom.

The unit trains British troops and provides anti-terrorism training for Kenyan troops fighting the al-Shabab armed group, as agreed in the UK-Kenya Defence Cooperation Agreement, which, since 2015, allows both armies to share intelligence and training.

In 2022, the UK government reported that BATUK had contributed more than 5.8 billion Kenyan shillings ($45m) to the local economies in which its garrisons are based, and that it employed more than 550 local staff. Local businesses close to BATUK training sites also benefit from the unit’s presence, it said.

However, there have been numerous complaints from local people about the conduct of the troops. They say mishandling of dangerous training material and unexploded bombs left in the ground have caused serious injuries, and they have complained about how British soldiers behave towards Kenyan women in the area.

Many Kenyan women say they have been left to care for children alone after British soldiers they began relationships with left the country at the end of their training.

There has been no mechanism within the UK or Kenyan justice systems to hold British soldiers under BATUK to account. On that basis, the UK government initially pushed back against Kenyan authorities’ attempts to investigate the troops’ behaviour.

In April 2024, therefore, the Kenyan parliament voted to amend the defence agreement with the UK to allow for local prosecutions of British soldiers.

What does the new report say?

The 94-page inquiry into the conduct of BATUK troops was released following a one-and-a-half-year investigation by the Kenyan parliament’s defence, intelligence and foreign relations committee.

The report examined complaints from residents in Laikipia and Samburu counties in central Kenya, close to where the BATUK camp is. Lawmakers began conducting public hearings to hear evidence in June 2024, with victims detailing harrowing accounts of mistreatment by BATUK soldiers. BATUK did not cooperate with the parliamentary investigation, the committee noted.

The report found that BATUK soldiers showed a “disturbing trend” of sexual misconduct, including rape, assault and the neglect of children fathered by the troops.

It found that an internal inquiry by BATUK in 2003 had mishandled evidence and failed to provide justice for women who brought complaints.

BATUK, which the report said does not conduct environmental impact assessments for its field exercises, has also caused serious environmental damage. In at least one case, a major fire killed livestock and destroyed 4,900 hectares (12,000 acres) of vegetation. BATUK also illegally dumped military waste and toxic materials openly, breaking Kenyan environmental law, the report concluded.

Additionally, the Kenyan parliament said British troops showed “gross negligence” in the way they handled unexploded ordnance during their training and that their neglect had led to multiple deaths and injuries.

Communities were routinely not informed about loud training drills, leading to shock, injury or trauma in some cases.

Kenyan workers hired to clean up ammunition debris were not provided with protective gear in line with Kenyan labour laws, the report added.

Complainants who brought claims of injuries to BATUK were not fairly compensated, the report found.

A British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) signage stands next to the road, as Kenya’s parliament accuse British soldiers of decades of sexual abuse, killings, human rights violations and environmental destruction while training in the country, in Nanyuki, Laikipia County, Kenya, December 4, 2025 [Monicah Mwangi/Reuters]

What other abuses is BATUK accused of?

Thousands of serious allegations against BATUK members have been made by locals. At the public hearings which parliament conducted, the mother of a young woman testified in June 2024 that her daughter had been the victim of a hit-and-run incident involving a BATUK truck, which left her wheelchair-bound. BATUK paid for the daughter’s hospital bills for two years, but did not compensate the family beyond that, she said.

Another mother, who attended a hearing holding her five-year-old daughter, narrated how she had been abandoned by a British soldier with whom she had been in a consensual relationship when he discovered she was pregnant. The soldier is believed to have since left Kenya. The woman said she needed child support.

Survivors of a huge March 2021 wildfire, which started at the privately-owned Lolldaiga Conservancy nature reserve in Laikipia, where BATUK carries out trainings, also brought complaints. The nature reserve houses wildlife like elephants, buffalo, lions, and the endangered Grevy zebra.

The blaze, which raged for four days, is believed to have started after BATUK used white phosphorus, a lethal chemical, during a training exercise. The resulting fire ripped through the nature reserve’s grounds, burning 4,900 hectares (12,000 acres). It killed livestock and pushed fleeing wild animals to swaths of farm land further afield. Community members said the smoke was so heavy that it lingered for days and caused eye and breathing problems.

One man named Linus Murangiri was crushed by a moving vehicle as he rushed to help put out the fire, the BBC reported.

In 2022, the UK’s Ministry of Defence claimed that the fire was likely caused by a camp stove that had been knocked over during an exercise.

In August 2025, the UK agreed to pay what it called a “generous” settlement to the 7,723 claimants who sued BATUK over the incident with the help of organisations like ACCPA. The BBC reported that compensation amounted to just 2.9 million pounds ($3.9m).

The British government has also supported the restoration of burned areas on the conservancy where BATUK exercises continue to be held.

What happened to Agnes Wanjiru?

Agnes Wanjiru’s killing in March 2012, allegedly by a British soldier, was the most high-profile BATUK case.

Wanjiru, the mother of a five-month-old girl, disappeared on the night of March 31, after last being seen with British soldiers at the Lion Court Hotel bar in Nanyuki. Her naked body was found two months later in a septic tank on the hotel grounds, close to the room where the BATUK soldiers had been staying. The group of soldiers had left Kenya by the time her body was discovered.

A post-mortem determined Wanjiru had been stabbed in the chest and abdomen, had a collapsed lung, and had suffered from blunt force injury to her chest. She had been beaten and was likely still alive when she was placed in the tank, it said. It was not clear whether she had been sexually assaulted.

In June 2012, the Kenyan police asked that nine soldiers be questioned by the British Royal Military Police, but say they did not receive a response. Wanjiru’s family attempted to sue BATUK in Kenya, but the UK government argued the Kenyan court had no jurisdiction over UK troops.

Wanjiru’s murder case resurfaced in October 2021 after a Sunday Times investigation revealed that a British soldier had murdered her, and that BATUK bosses knew about the involvement of the soldier in her killing, but tried to cover it up.

One soldier who went to top officials after hearing a colleague, identified at the time as Soldier X, confess to the killings was told to “shut up”. The soldier said Soldier X took him to the septic tank and showed him Wanjiru’s body. Soldier X, who was not among the nine soldiers the Kenyan police initially identified, also poked fun at the murdered woman in Facebook posts, the Times reported.

The revelation brought renewed attention to the case and, this time, UK government officials agreed to cooperate with a new investigation.

In September 2025, a Kenyan court ordered the arrestand extradition of a British national, and in November, the UK government arrested a 38-year-old suspect, Robert Purkiss. The case could mark the first time a former or current British soldier will be extradited to face trial in a foreign country, according to the UK’s Guardian newspaper.

Purkiss served as a medic in the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, an Infantry Regiment based in the northwest of England, and was in Kenya for a six-week training exercise at the time of Wanjiru’s death.

He appeared in a Westminster court on November 7, where a prosecutor alleged that Purkiss and others had regularly paid local women for sex and that they had been “drinking heavily” the night of Wanjiru’s murder, The Guardian reported.

Friends of Wanjiru, a hairdresser, reported that she had told them she was going out to “hustle” (earn extra money) for her daughter, prosecutors told the UK court.

The court also heard that Purkiss confessed to a colleague that he murdered Wanjiru over “sex that went wrong”.

Purkiss denied the allegations. His next hearing is set for December 9.

Rose Wanyua Wanjiku, elder sister to Agnes Wanjiru, 20, holds photographs of Agnes at Rose’s house in the Majengo informal settlement in Nanyuki, Kenya, November 4, 2021 [File: Brian Inganga/AP]

How has the UK government responded to the report?

The British High Commission in Kenya responded in a statement on Wednesday, claiming that BATUK had not been sufficiently represented during the parliamentary hearings.

The commission said it had submitted written statements which were not taken into consideration in the report, and added that it was ready to investigate new allegations against BATUK “once evidence is provided”.

“While we deeply regret the challenges which have arisen in relation to our defence presence in Kenya, we are disappointed our submission to the Committee was not incorporated into the report’s conclusions,” the statement said.

What will happen next?

The parliamentary report recommended that Kenya’s Attorney General should immediately work with the UK government to extradite Purkiss to Kenya for the ongoing trial of Wanjiru’s murder. It also ordered inquiries into other deaths of local people suspected to have involved BATUK soldiers.

Negotiations should begin with the UK within three months to hold ex-BATUK soldiers who have neglected their children to account, the report said, and compensation and psychosocial support should be provided to victims of sexual offences committed by BATUK soldiers.

More broadly, the parliamentary report also recommended that government agencies should have more direct oversight over foreign troops stationed in the country by developing a code of conduct highlighting zero tolerance of gender-based violence and environmental degradation.

Kenya similarly hosts two US military bases with fluctuating numbers of personnel. The country often hosts US-Africa military drills along with several other African countries.

Mwangi of ACCPA told Al Jazeera that the parliament’s move was a step forward for communities which have to deal with foreign militaries in Kenya and elsewhere. Injustices committed by BATUK towards local communities, he said, dated back to Kenya’s colonial history with the UK, but officials have historically been wary of interrogating soldiers due to fears that development aid from the UK government could be affected.

Kenya is a top recipient of British aid, which mostly supports healthcare and humanitarian efforts. The country was also allocated a 24.6-million-pound ($33m) development budget in 2023.

(Al Jazeera)

December 6, 2025
Former British Soldier Wanted In Kenya For Murder Refused Bail

LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) – A former British soldier wanted in Kenya over the murder of a woman near a British army training camp more than a dozen years ago was refused bail on Monday pending extradition proceedings.

Robert Purkiss is accused of murdering 21-year-old Agnes Wanjiru near the army training camp in 2012, with Kenyan authorities issuing a warrant for his arrest in September.

Purkiss, who was arrested this month and has been in custody since, “vigorously denies” any involvement in Wanjiru’s death, his lawyers told Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

Lawyers representing the Kenyan authorities say Purkiss’ fellow soldiers allege he confessed to the crime on the night of Wanjiru’s killing and shortly after.

Wanjiru’s murder has strained relations between Britain and Kenya, where her family and rights groups say the killers were being shielded by a defence cooperation agreement that complicates prosecution of British soldiers training in Kenya.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence said in September it remained committed to helping Wanjiru’s family secure justice.

EX-SOLDIER WANTED OVER 2012 MURDER

Wanjiru’s body was found in a septic tank at the Lion’s Court Hotel in the Kenyan town of Nanyuki in June 2012. Wanjir had last been seen with a group of British soldiers on the night of March 31 and April 1, 2012.

Joel Smith, a lawyer representing Kenyan prosecutors, said Wanjiru had gone to the hotel with two friends, leaving her baby daughter to be cared for by a friend.

“At about two o’clock in the morning, Ms Wanjiru left with one of the soldiers and as she left (told her friends) she was going to hustle for her daughter,” Smith told the court. “She was never seen alive again.”

Smith added that Purkiss had shown one soldier the septic tank Wanjiru’s body was later found in and later told another soldier he killed Wanjiru after “sex that went wrong”.

Purkiss’ lawyer David Josse said that “there is no logical basis for saying that this man will run away”.

But Judge Paul Goldspring remanded Purkiss in custody until a hearing next month. Purkiss nodded towards his wife and brother in the public gallery as he was led back to the cells.

November 24, 2025
‪Court Issues Arrest Warrant For Former British Soldier Accused of Murdering Woman In Nanyuki‬ A Decade Ago

The long-delayed pursuit of justice for Agnes Wanjiru moved forward significantly this week when a Kenyan High Court issued an arrest warrant for a British national suspected of murdering the young mother over a decade ago.

The development represents a watershed moment in a case that has exposed both the complexities of international military cooperation and the persistent challenges faced by victims’ families seeking accountability.

On September 15, Justice Alexander Muteti granted the Director of Public Prosecutions’ application for an arrest warrant against the unnamed British citizen, ruling that murder constitutes an extraditable offense and that sufficient probable cause exists to institute formal charges.

The court documents specify that “on the night of March 31/ April 1, 2012, at Lions court lodge in Nanyuki within Laikipia county, you murdered Agnes Wanjiru Wanjiku.”

The case stems from the tragic death of Agnes Wanjiru, a 21-year-old freelance hairdresser and mother to a four-month-old infant, who vanished after spending an evening at the Lions Court Lodge in Nanyuki.

She was last seen leaving the hotel with a British soldier from the Duke of Lancaster Regiment.

Two months later, her body was discovered in a septic tank 50 metres from the hotel room, with an autopsy report showing she had been stabbed multiple times.

The timing and location of Wanjiru’s death were particularly significant. Nanyuki hosts the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK), a permanent garrison that has operated since colonial times.

The Lions Court Lodge, where Wanjiru was last seen alive, sits in close proximity to this military facility, making it a frequent gathering place for off-duty British soldiers.

What has made this case particularly troubling for Wanjiru’s family and human rights advocates is the alleged institutional response to her murder.

The British Army has been accused of maintaining a decade-long cover-up of the murder, with systemic failures within military accountability coming to light as new witnesses have emerged.

Despite a Kenyan inquest finding that Wanjiru had been “unlawfully killed” and the judge presiding finding that British soldiers had murdered her, no soldiers have been charged or convicted for the killing.

The diplomatic and legal complexities surrounding the case have created additional obstacles.

While the UK government has previously indicated its willingness to cooperate with extradition requests, the formal process has been slow to materialize.

As recently as 2024, UK officials revealed that Kenya was yet to formally request extradition of suspects, though they indicated the UK would comply with such requests.

The recent court ruling marks the first concrete legal step toward bringing the suspect to trial in Kenya. Prosecutors Vincent Monda and Gikui Gichuhi informed the court that despite extensive investigations, the suspect has remained abroad and has not presented himself to Kenyan authorities.

The arrest warrant now paves the way for formal extradition proceedings.

For Wanjiru’s family, the development comes after years of frustration and unfulfilled promises.

Earlier this year, UK Defence Secretary John Healey met with Wanjiru’s family during a visit to Kenya, but family members expressed that they had been subject to “too many empty promises” regarding investigations into her death.

The British Army’s presence in Kenya, formalized through training agreements, has been scrutinized following allegations of misconduct by personnel stationed at BATUK. Wanjiru’s murder became emblematic of concerns about military personnel operating with apparent impunity in host countries.

The legal proceedings will now move forward with extradition efforts, though the timeline remains uncertain. International extradition processes can be lengthy and complex, particularly when they involve military personnel and questions of jurisdiction.

The case returns to court on October 21, 2025, for further directions.

Agnes Wanjiru’s death occurred when she was building a life as a young entrepreneur and mother.

Her family’s thirteen-year quest for justice reflects broader challenges faced by families seeking accountability when alleged perpetrators are foreign nationals with institutional protection.

The arrest warrant represents not just a legal milestone, but a recognition that justice delayed should not mean justice denied.

As this case moves toward what may finally be its resolution in a Kenyan courtroom, it serves as a reminder of the human cost of impunity and the persistence required to hold powerful institutions accountable, regardless of the nationality or status of those involved.

September 16, 2025
British Soldiers’ Identities to Be Disclosed to Children They Fathered and Abandoned in Kenya

A British High Court has ordered government officials to reveal the identities of 11 soldiers suspected of fathering children in Kenya before abandoning them, marking a historic victory for families who have sought justice for decades.

Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of the family division, granted the unprecedented application compelling the Ministry of Defence, Department for Work and Pensions, and HM Revenue & Customs to disclose names and last known addresses of the military personnel within one month.

The case involves children ranging from infants to adults born in the 1990s, all conceived near the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) base in Nanyuki, where approximately 10,000 British soldiers rotate through training exercises annually.

The children, described as “mostly of mixed race,” live in communities where such heritage often leads to ostracization, facing significant social and economic challenges.

Their mothers, all Kenyan women from the region around Nanyuki, testified they were in consensual relationships with British soldiers who returned to the UK without taking responsibility for their children.

Many attempted to contact the fathers through various means but received no response, leaving them to raise mixed-race children alone in one of Kenya’s most impoverished regions.

Generica Namoru pictured with her five-year old daughter Nicole. Namoru says she was in a consensual relationship with a UK soldier but he has abandoned her and their child since leaving Kenya. Festo Lang/CNN

Rob George KC, representing the children, told the court that DNA testing confirmed their fathers were not Kenyan, making it highly probable they were British Army personnel or civilians connected to the base.

One child described feeling completely abandoned, saying “The UK doesn’t even know I exist, let alone give me citizenship”.

James Netto, the children’s solicitor who traveled to Kenya in December with DNA testing kits, described the 11 cases as representing “just the tip of the iceberg.”

His investigation revealed a disturbing pattern spanning generations, with BATUK facing renewed scrutiny amid allegations that British soldiers have fathered children with local women and left many without support.

The legal team’s innovative approach involved using the genealogy website Ancestry to match DNA results from Kenyan children with other tests available online.

When potential matches to British soldiers were identified, Netto contacted them through social media, though many blocked further communication attempts.

Court documents revealed a telling pattern in birth timing, with a disproportionate number of children born in October or November, coinciding with the end of nine-month British military deployments that typically begin in January or February.

One case highlighted the profound identity crisis these children face.

A young woman discovered through DNA testing that 31 percent of her genetic heritage relates to England and northwestern Europe, with her closest living relative residing in England, yet she had never known anything about her paternal family or heritage.

The children are now seeking legal recognition of paternity, which could entitle them to British citizenship, inheritance rights, and child maintenance payments. This aspect of the case will be ruled on at a later date.

This legal victory comes amid mounting pressure on British forces over historical misconduct in Kenya.

The long-standing presence of BATUK has been marred by various incidents, including recent arrests of soldiers, and the unresolved murder case of Agnes Wanjiru, whose body was found stuffed in a septic tank near the British base in 2012.

The timing is particularly significant as Kenya has strengthened its legal framework for addressing such cases.

Under a 2021 defense pact, British soldiers can now be sued in Kenyan courts for wrongdoing, offering new avenues for justice that were previously unavailable.

For the affected families in rural Kenya, this court order represents more than legal victory.

It offers hope for recognition, identity, and basic rights that have been denied to them for years.

As one mother holding her five-year-old daughter explained, she simply wanted child support from the British soldier who abandoned them after discovering the pregnancy.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson maintained that “paternity claims against UK service personnel are a private life issue,” but confirmed the government cooperates with local child support authorities where there are paternity claims, declining further comment while legal proceedings continue.

The case establishes a crucial precedent that could encourage hundreds more similar claims from across Kenya’s British military training areas, where local communities have long struggled with the consequences of relationships between foreign soldiers and local women that ended in abandonment and poverty.

August 3, 2025
British Soldiers Training In Kenya Are Having Unprotected Sex With Prostitutes To Prove How Strong They Are

According to reports by British media, senior British soldiers have been accused of initiating new recruits deployed at the Nanyuki military base in Kenya into having unprotected sex with prostitutes as part of hazing, thus exposing them to sexually transmitted infections.

The new recruits are reportedly subjected to an initiation process where they must decide whether to use a condom or not by flipping a coin.

‘The more senior soldiers would flip a coin – heads you could use a condom, tails you could not,” the report detailed, citing findings from the British Medical Journal Military Health.

The report also said that while sexual health guidance is provided on arrival in the East African country, the number of soldiers seeking help for co-morbidities has increased compared to UK-based troops.

The report warned of a growing use of prostitutes close to the British base in Nanyuki, Kenya, with some services even offered at barber shops, as revealed by a senior officer who had gone for a trim.

‘When the haircut was complete, he was ushered towards a back room and shown a number of female sex workers,’ the report said. ‘The barber then asked if he would like any ‘extra services.’

The risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease from a prostitute cannot only reduce a unit’s operational effectiveness, but also poses a “global reputational risk,” the report, written by the Defense Medical Service, added.

The British Army Training Unit in Kenya (BATUK) contingent in Kenya consists of approximately 100 permanent staff and a replenishing cohort of 280 short-term personnel.

BATUK’s history of sexual misconduct in Kenya

Established in 1964, BATUK is a permanent training base located 200 kilometers north of the Kenyan capital. BATUK has a controversial reputation among Kenyans: soldiers have been accused of rape and murder, and civilians have been maimed by ammunition left on the ground after exercises.

In March 2020, over 650 British soldiers were allegedly confined to their barracks in Nanyuki after several troops were feared to have contracted HIV from local prostitutes.

The report was revealed by The Mail on Sunday which claimed that up to 100 British army personnel were involved with prostitutes who set up makeshift brothels near their base in Laikipia County.

The soldiers, of the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment battlegroup, were in Kenya taking part in Exercise Askari Storm.

The troops had participated in a simulated rescue of up to 400 people in mock crisis which involved parachuting into Mt Keny National Park.

The soldiers are said to have sought the services of the prostitutes based in Nanyuki town after they were granted leave.

After their night of romp with Kenyan sex workers, The Mail on Sunday said that at least 30 soldiers sought medical advice, saying they feared they may have contracted HIV or sexually transmitted infections because they had unprotected sex.

Infuriated, their commanding officer is said to have put them on lockdown until they returned to Britain.

In a separate case, a British soldier was fined and discharged after confessing he had lifted the skirt of a Kenyan woman in a mall in Nanyuki.

The Sunday Times, a British newspaper revealed the soldier, a colour sergeant or equivalent rank of a warrant officer, was drunk and the woman was known to him.

The paper identified the soldier as a Colour Sergeant Barlow and said the information about the woman’s humiliation emerged only last week.

He pleaded guilty to sexual assault, was fined £500 (Sh82,171) and was dismissed from the military.

“It is understood that Colour Sergeant Barlow lifted the skirt of a Kenyan woman, whom he knew, in a shopping mall in Nanyuki while intoxicated. He pleaded guilty to sexual assault and alongside dismissal was served with compensation order of £500,” the paper reported.

This revelation followed hot on the heels of a blockbuster report of yet another British soldier who allegedly killed a Kenyan sex worker in Nanyuki in 2012. It is reported that he posted about it on Facebook, making fun of the crime with seven or eight colleagues.

The soldier is alleged to have killed sex worker Agnes Wanjiru who was 21 at the time, on March 31, 2012, while she entertained him at Lion’s Court Hotel.

Her body bearing stab wound was found three months later in a septic tank at the hotel. The soldier had returned to the UK before he body was discovered.

Despite the confession of the soldier, there has been no prosecution in this murder.

BATUK’s environmental atrocities

The prominent revelation of Ms Wanjiru’s murder only adds to the long list of atrocities allegedly committed by BATUK in Samburu and Nanyuki.

The soldiers have in the past been accused of carelessly leaving unexploded ordinances in the unfenced fields of Samburu, killing and maiming herders and their livestock. They have also been accused of rape, murder, assault and environmental crimes.

Rights groups working around the areas where Batuk units train have for years raised concerns about human rights violations.

The British government has twice been compelled to pay millions of shillings to residents. In total, 1,300 people who had been seriously injured or killed by the bombs qualified. The payment was done in 2003 and 2004 after a British law firm, Leigh Day, negotiated the settlement.

When lawyer Martyn Leigh filed the suit, the British MoD denied responsibility for the accidents that killed at least 560 people, mostly children, over 50 years.

Later, defence officials in London agreed to settle the claims without admission of liability on the basis that it did leave unexploded weapons in the training areas, but for the mere fact that it used the unfenced grounds.

In 2003, 230 people were paid Sh450 million for either losing relatives, or sustaining injuries that resulted in disability.

In 2013, Amnesty International (AI) and Impact said at least 650 women had been raped by British soldiers over 35 years (1965 to 2001) in Dol Dol and Archer’s Post and that there was a conspiracy of silence by UK and Kenyan authorities.

“Despite the many complaints, Kenya and the UK failed to take effective measures: to investigate such claims, bring the alleged perpetrators to justice, ensure adequate reparation for the victims and prevent further attacks,” AI said.

Samburu women who claimed to have been raped and even impregnated by the soldiers have, however, never received compensation. They risk never receiving any, following the passing of UK’s Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act 2021, which took effect in April.

The Act, which was effected in April the same year, introduced a statute of limitation – five years – beyond which no prosecution is possible.

On July 27 2021, Defence Secretary Monica Juma and her UK counterpart, Ben Wallace, signed the new Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) in London.

It contains details on the jurisdiction, environmental and civilian protection, importation of ordnance, conducts of the visiting nations’ forces pertaining to sexual exploitation of women and settlement of disputes among others. But still, soldiers go unpunished for crimes they have committed. Some cases are pending at Nanyuki law courts.

Soldiers were blamed for starting a fire that destroyed about 12,000 acres of land at the Lolidiaga Conservancy. “Two months in Kenya later and we’ve only got eight days left. Been good, caused a fire, killed an elephant and feel terrible about it but hey-ho, when in Rome,” a British soldier wrote in a Snapchat post, angering conservationists.

Under the DCA, the UK invests Sh1.165 billion annually and trains about 1,100 soldiers from the Kenya Defence Forces preparing for deployment to Somalia.

The DCA states that the visiting forces shall avoid acts that impact on human health and safety, bans sexual exploitation of children, details on the disposal of arms wastes and the procedures to be taken prior to military training involving live firing in designated training areas.

British troops sparked a major fire in Kenya on 23 March 2021 (Photo: MOD)

The rules of engagement have been similar to those the previous DCAs, yet the rate of prosecution of UK soldiers in Kenya remains very low. On the case of Wanjiku, the then British High Commissioner Jane Marriott said the UK would cooperate with investigators.

“In 2012, the UK’s Special Investigation Branch carried out initial enquiries in Kenya, including providing information about British personnel to Kenyan police. No further requests were received at that time. Following the conclusion of a Kenyan inquest in 2019, we understand that the Kenyan authorities are looking into the murder. We will support that Kenyan police investigation,” her statement read in part.

Parliament Probes abuses by British soldiers in Kenya

In August 2023, The National Assembly launched an inquiry into alleged atrocities inflicted on Kenyans by BATUK based in Laikipia and Samburu counties.

By invoking Article 95 of the Constitution which mandates the National Assembly to represent the people, deliberate on issues of concern to the people and exercise oversight of State organs, the Departmental Committee on Defense sought to assure Kenyans that it would conduct a comprehensive investigation into the alleged malpractices.

Among the allegations being probed include; Ethical breaches related to misconduct, including corruption, fraud, discrimination, abuse of power, and other unethical behaviours.

The committee is also looking into human rights violations including mistreatment, torture, unlawful detention, killings, or any other violations of internationally recognized human rights standards.

BATUK’s operational integrity especially safety protocols, compliance with legal requirements and adherence to established military standards is also under the microscope.

The unresolved murder case of Agnes Wanjiru, the woman allegedly murdered by a British soldier in March 2012, is among atrocities and human rights violations that the Parliamentary Defense watchdog is seeking to probe and seek justice.

The committee has so far received 10 petitions implicating the British Army Training Unit in Kenya.

With no single accused Army officer having been prosecuted in Kenya, perhaps this probe is a God sent opportunity for the victims who have been waiting for Justice to submit their case.

April 8, 2024