Kenyan women, who claim they were raped by British soldiers in a period spanning 30 years demonstrated on Thursday in the streets of Nairobi, urging the British government to pay for the cost of raising their mixed-race children.
Some 50 women and their 60 children were led by their London lawyer Martyn Day to the British High Commission (embassy) offices in Nairobi, where they presented their petition to the high commissioner, Edward Clay.
”In their petition, these women are formally urging the British government to pay for the cost of raising their mixed-race children, particularly for their education,” Day said after meeting the British officials.
”They also want London and Nairobi to immediately set up an open inquiry into these rape cases, which were reported to the Kenyan and British authorities as early as 1977, but nothing was done,” he said.
”This is the first formal meeting we have held with the Britain over the rape issue and they seem to appreciate the magnitude of the case,” Day added.
Day is seeking up to 20-million pounds ($33,3-million) in damages from Britain for some 600 Maasai and Samburu women.
Day obtained last November from London a $4,5-million out-of-court compensation package to some 232 Kenyan tribesmen, for death and injuries caused by explosions of live ordnance left behind by British troops training in central Kenya. – Sapa-AFP