{"id":6809,"date":"2026-10-03T14:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T14:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=6809"},"modified":"2026-10-03T14:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T14:21:14","slug":"britains-military-in-kenya-allegations-immunity-and-a-fight-for-justice-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=6809","title":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s military in Kenya: Allegations, immunity and a fight for justice | Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>5 Minute, 38 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>


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\u201cGet away with it\u201d<\/h3>\n

Memusi Lochede sits on a bed as her 24-year-old daughter Chaula lies motionless on the floor of their home in Archer\u2019s Post, in the shadow of the training grounds. A donated wheelchair sits in the corner. Her daughter\u2019s right leg is gone; metal rods brace a body so badly injured that she struggles to hold up her head.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have so much pain in my heart seeing my daughter in this condition,\u201d 46-year-old Lochede tells Al Jazeera, wiping the drool from her daughter\u2019s chin. \u201cI feel ashamed that she needs so much help, and I don\u2019t know how to help her.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2019, Chaula, then a teenager, says she was hit by a speeding BATUK vehicle while crossing the road. Her leg was amputated and, her mother says, she was left paralysed and spent nearly three years in hospital.<\/p>\n

A BATUK representative later came to see Lochede, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe apologised for what happened and said they don\u2019t want a court case and would take care of my daughter \u2014 anything she needs,\u201d she recounts.<\/p>\n

The MOD said it \u201chas not located a record of an approach having been made by a BATUK representative to the family.\u201d<\/p>\n

When her daughter was discharged, BATUK paid the hospital bills \u2014 without receipts or disclosing the amount \u2014 and disappeared, Lochede says. For years, Lochede called its community liaison officer, the Kenyan official tasked with receiving complaints like hers, who never answered. Eventually she gave up.<\/p>\n

The MOD told Al Jazeera in August that BATUK is aware of the claim that one of its drivers \u201chit and injured a minor\u201d in 2019, \u201cresulting in permanent injuries\u201d.<\/p>\n

It said legal representatives have been in contact with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights about the case and that a compensation offer has been made but the commission has not responded.<\/p>\n

In late September, Al Jazeera asked the MOD what had been offered, when, and through whom. It did not provide those details, saying instead that BATUK \u201cremains willing to engage with the child\u2019s family, through an appropriate representative and on a without-prejudice basis,\u201d but that \u201cto date, we have been unable to establish contact with the family or an authorised representative\u201d.\u00a0Any resolution would have to rest on \u201cverified medical and factual information\u201d and, because the claim concerns a minor, be approved by a Kenyan court.<\/p>\n

Ruth Getobai Nchagwa, a deputy director at the commission, says it has \u201cnever engaged with BATUK directly as our letters to them went unanswered\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chaula\u2019s case \u201chas not been addressed to date,\u201d she notes, and the commission is not aware of any discussions about compensation. Lochede similarly says no one has ever approached her about compensation.<\/p>\n

Before the accident, Lochede supported her five children by making beaded necklaces and selling them in Nairobi. Now she cannot leave her daughter\u2019s side, and Chaula\u2019s care costs about 30,000 Kenyan shillings ($230) a month \u2014 more than Lochede usually earns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shameful feeling to pick up the phone and call so many numbers for help, and no one picks up your call,\u201d she explains, her lips quivering as she fights tears. \u201cIn those moments where I can\u2019t provide for my daughter, I just lock myself inside the room and lie in my bed and cry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her daughter, once healthy and active, now barely speaks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some days she wakes up and says just one word, like \u2018food\u2019 or \u2018bathroom,\u2019\u201d Lochede says. \u201cThose are the good days. Other days, she refuses to eat. I can see that she\u2019s depressed and lonely. Inside, her soul is shattered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese soldiers do these things because they know they can get away with it,\u201d she adds sharply. \u201cThey know we don\u2019t have money. We don\u2019t have power. It\u2019s extremely difficult for us to fight them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cases like Chaula\u2019s are far from isolated. Last year, a landmark two-year inquiry by Kenya\u2019s parliamentary defence committee put decades of alleged BATUK abuses on the official record.<\/p>\n

The 94-page report<\/a> gathered testimony from hearings across Laikipia and Samburu, including a herder allegedly shot by a British sergeant; the alleged gang rape of 30 women at knifepoint in 1997; a boy who lost both arms and an eye to unexploded ordnance; and women with children their British fathers had never acknowledged.<\/p>\n

BATUK declined to appear, citing its status and immunities under the defence arrangements. The committee condemned the refusal as contemptuous, calling it \u201cemblematic of institutional contempt for the authority of Parliament and, by extension, the sovereignty of the people of Kenya\u201d.<\/p>\n

It concluded that BATUK \u201cis increasingly seen as an occupying presence rather than a development partner\u201d, with affected residents drawing parallels to colonial injustices. Witnesses told the committee that \u201csuspected BATUK abuses are not only unpunished but actively covered up\u201d \u2014 that whenever a BATUK member is implicated, police files often \u201cgo missing\u201d and complainants are \u201cintimidated into silence.\u201d<\/p>\n

An MOD spokesperson told Al Jazeera the UK \u201cdeeply\u201d values its relationship with Kenya, \u201cwhich has long been the UK\u2019s defence partner of choice in East Africa\u201d.<\/p>\n

The MOD is \u201caddressing concerns raised by Kenyan authorities and communities, focusing on legal accountability, ethical standards, environmental stewardship, economic benefit and social responsibility,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Regarding road traffic incidents, the spokesperson said BATUK \u201ccooperates fully with the local authorities and Kenyan Police\u201d, that all such incidents are \u201cinvestigated thoroughly\u201d and that \u201cwhere claims are made, BATUK submits to the jurisdiction of the Kenyan courts\u201d.<\/p>\n

When asked what progress the MOD had made on the concerns raised by the committee, and whether it was investigating any of the specific cases, it referred Al Jazeera to the written statement<\/a> it submitted to the inquiry, which said it was \u201cnot aware of any evidence to support any allegation of collusion with security forces to suppress or dismiss complaints, or intimidate, bribe or coerce victims into silence\u201d, and that any such evidence \u201cwould be taken extremely seriously and investigated accordingly\u201d.<\/p>\n

For Awino Okech, professor of feminist and security studies at SOAS University of London, the parliamentary report points beyond individual abuses. \u201cThis is no longer a case of a few bad apples but reckoning with what many will interpret as accepted militarised institutional culture,\u201d she tells Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fundamental question the British government is being asked to reflect on is their responsibility when there is a documented pattern of malbehaviour by their employees in a foreign country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Okech says the pattern cannot be separated from race. \u201cWe cannot ignore the racialised element. In this case, it is visible when crimes committed in Kenya are taken less seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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\u201cGet away with it\u201d Memusi Lochede sits on a bed as her 24-year-old daughter Chaula lies motionless on the floor of their home in Archer\u2019s Post, in the shadow of the training grounds. A donated wheelchair sits in the corner. Her daughter\u2019s right leg is gone; metal rods brace a body so badly injured that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_templately_pack_id":"","_templately_imported_at":"","_templately_source":"","_templately_import_session_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t