David Gough in Kenya
It was a hot summer’s day, and Joseph Ekuwam and two friends from his village were herding cattle in the arid plains of northern Kenya when they came across a shiny object half-buried in the ground.
What they thought to be a harmless piece of metal turned out to be a bomb left behind after this year’s joint training exercises between the British and Kenyan armies. When one of the boys picked it up it exploded, killing all three.
Such accidents are increasingly common in Samburu land. The local MP plans to sue the Kenyan and British governments for compensation for dozens of his constituents who he says have been killed or maimed.
Sammy Leshore, the government chief whip, says it is impossible to know the exact number of victims of “the debris of war games”.
His constituents are the desperately poor Samburu tribe who inhabit these barren plains. They are nomads who migrate in search of pasture for their livestock.
Laibon Lengila, a Samburu warrior, leads the way to an area he says was used for a live firing exercise last year. Shrapnel debris is concentrated in a tidy cluster, and an unexploded bomb lies nearby.
The area has been used as a military exercise ground since before independence in 1963 and is marked on army maps as a military site. The Samburu are advised when and where exercises are to be held, but boundaries are anathema to them, despite the hidden dangers.
“We have lived like this for centuries,” says Tamolen Loshede. “This is our place, and yet we have all these military around. Sometimes the bombs fly right over our heads.”
A local councillor, Fabien Lolosoli, who is assisting Leshore’s efforts to win compensation, has compiled a list of 23 people killed or injured in the past 15 years.
“But,” he says, “the true figure is undoubtedly higher. The Samburu are not in the habit of reporting these accidents. What we do know is that the vast majority of victims are children between 10 and 16 years. They are attracted to shiny metal objects and pick them up and start playing with them.”
One such child is nine-year-old Madwan Refelen, who has shrapnel wounds in her leg and abdomen and is blind in one eye after finding a bomb three years ago.
“One of my friends saw a shiny object and started playing with it. There was a big bang and then we all fell down,” says Madwan, who spent a year in hospital. She still has small lumps on her forehead where bits of shrapnel remain.
A teacher, Henry Ekuwam, the brother of Joseph who was killed with his two friends recently, is demanding compensation. “I am furious with the British army because they are leaving dangerous weapons in other people’s countries.”
Lieutenant Colonel David Broadfoot, the commanding officer of the British army liaison staff in Kenya, says: “We do clear the sites very thoroughly after testing. We have nothing to hide.”