An investigation into allegations that more than 600 women were raped by British soldiers on exercise in northern Kenya between the late 1970s and 2000 has concluded that all the local police records produced to substantiate the claims are forgeries.
The findings of a team of British military police forensic experts in Kenya appears to deal a blow to the efforts of Martyn Day, a British solicitor, to win around £10-million in compensation from the Ministry of Defence for the women. He had cited the police reports as his main documentary evidence of the alleged rapes and as proof that the MoD had been aware of the claims since 1981.
The MoD has maintained it knew of no rape claims against British soldiers until Day began his campaign late last year. A spokesperson for the British High Commission in Nairobi said yesterday that the forensic tests showed that all known entries in police records detailing rape complaints against British soldiers had been faked. He said: ”We are not saying that none of these claims is genuine. The investigation is ongoing.”
The MoD in London refused to comment on the veracity of the police records yesterday. A spokesman said: ”There have not been any conclusions reached yet. We treat the allegations very seriously. We have a team of military policemen there who are investigating this with the assistance of the Kenyan authorities.”
Day yesterday accused the High Commission of diverting attention from many genuine claims by revealing what was already obvious: that some police documents allegedly pertaining to the rape cases were forgeries.
”We’ve known all along that a large number of documents were forgeries, I could wallpaper my house with them,” he said. ”But I’m absolutely convinced that there’s been an epidemic of rape across central Kenya and this feeble attempt by the British High Commission to obfuscate the issue is somewhat contemptuous.” He said he had collected about 25 entries from police files alleging about 75 cases of rape by British soldiers on the local Samburu and Masai women.
They included the minutes of an alleged meeting in 1983 between five British army officers and local authorities in Nanyuki, in Rift Valley Province during which seven such attacks were discussed. After interviewing the authorities named in the report, Day said: ”If that set of documents is forged, I’ll jump out of this window.”
He said: ”If there are forged documents not only outside police stations, but inside them also, that’s a worry. But the key question remains, are these women telling the truth? And to answer that you have to look at all the surrounding evidence. I’m absolutely convinced that the majority of these women are telling the truth.”
Day began documenting the rape allegations after concluding a successful compensation campaign on behalf of Kenyan farmers killed or maimed by ordnance left on two nearby British army firing ranges. The MoD paid £4,5-million in an out-of-court settlement to injured and bereaved Samburu and Masai herders but did not admit responsibility for any ord nance left lying on the ranges, which it shares with the Kenyan army.
Rumours have since circulated in northern Kenya that many of those claims were fraudulent with penniless herders awarded sums of up to £250 000 for injuries allegedly caused by wild animals and domestic accidents.
”There’s no doubt people have been injured by unexploded bombs, and some were probably left by the British; but this was a goldrush,” said a local commercial farmer, requesting anonymity.
”What do you expect when you offer money like that to people who have nothing?”
Day said he was expecting to win £25 000 pounds each for at least 400 of the alleged rape victims, or around £10-million pounds in total. Among the claims, Day alleges a gang rape by soldiers from a Gurkha regiment training near the outlying village of Dol Dol in 1999. Six women and at least a dozen soldiers were allegedly involved in the incident which was reported to the Kenyan police.
Other alleged victims of assault by British soldiers include Tianta Saikong, who says she was raped five years ago, aged 67 years; Elizabeth Rikanna, who bore a mixed-race child in 1983.
Anna Legei, whose pelvis was broken during an alleged attack in 1983. ”Even if the British soldiers compensate me … I will never be able to forget,” said Ms Tipita. ”They have brought shame on all the British people.”
Some community leaders in northern Kenya from groups other than the Samburu and Masai question the validity of some claims. ”There could be something in a few of these cases, but not in such a number. This is a very big shock to us,” said Charles Njuguna, former paramount chief of Nanyuki, where the annual British army mission is based.
”If this is true, why wasn’t the issue raised with local leaders before now? I don’t know of a single rape claim here before this British lawyer came. Maybe some people are just looking for money.”
Difficulties of mixing locals and troops
Three British infantry battalions visit northern Kenya each year, on six-week training exercises. Codenamed Exercise Grand Prix, the training takes place in winter, to capitalise on the icy crags of Mount Kenya At the same time, the troops are trained in jungle warfare in the mountain’s wooded foothills, desert warfare on the arid plains of Samburu, and live firing, on two nearby Kenyan army firing ranges.
Based in the town of Nanyuki, an upmarket trading-post at the foot of Mount Kenya, the British troops are encouraged to interact with the local population. The army has built several schools and bridges in the area. The town is also a magnet for prostitutes from across impoverished central Kenya. Typically, they charge as little as £3 for sex, often gambling on the prospect of striking up a lucrative longterm friendship with a British soldier. Mixed race children are a common feature of the area.
Allegations of rape by British soldiers on the local populace have focused on Samburu and Masai pastoralist communities. Nanyuki, where most local prostitutes work, is mostly inhabited by members of the Kikuyu, Kenya’s biggest tribe. Operating from bases in the nearby Aberdare hills, Kikuyu freedom fighters caused the Mau Mau emergency from 1965-56, during the last years of British colonial rule. In all, 32 white settlers were murdered by the Mau Mau, as well as thousands of their fellow tribesman who refused to cooperate.
Despite a recent BBC documentary, that accused the British government of war crimes in its quelling of the emergency, many Kikuyu remain resolutely pro-British. Nanyuki’s Kikuyu business community recently demonstrated against what it considered to be many fictitious rape allegations against the British army, which have seen the soldiers confined to barracks, unable to spend money in the town. – Guardian Unlimited Â