CNN: British soldiers in Kenya accused of raping and abandoning children

British soldiers are accused of raping hundreds of Kenyan women and abandoning dozens of the children they fathered during their decades-long training in the East African country.

This is not the first report of British troops committing war crimes around the world. In 2022 BBC The report revealed disturbing evidence of SAS war crimes in Afghanistan, as seen in a Panorama documentary.

Accordingly CNN’s Babies of mixed race are still being born in rural areas of central Kenya, where the British Army Training Unit (BATUK) trains troops about 200 kilometers north of Nairobi, according to a report published on Monday.

At least 69 of the infants were reportedly born as a result of rape by British soldiers. Other children, conceived in consensual relationships, had no support or contact with their fathers, who returned home after completing their training. CNN said.

“They always say, ‘Why are you here? Just looking for connections so you can go to your own people. You don’t belong here,'” 17-year-old Marian Pannalossy told CNN.

Allegations of British crimes in Kenya, including murder, date back to the 1950s.

In one case, a 21-year-old woman disappeared in 2012 after allegedly entering a hotel with British soldiers. Her body was later discovered in a septic tank. The soldier identified by other soldiers as the suspected killer was never brought to justice.

In 2007, the British Ministry of Defence dismissed allegations made by 2,187 Kenyan women, saying there was “no reliable evidence to support any of the allegations”.

Accordingly CNN, Royal Military Police investigators concluded that the evidence from Kenya had been fabricated without British officials conducting DNA tests on the children of the alleged victims.

In 2009, several villagers told Kenya’s Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission that British troops attacked them while going about their daily activities. British soldiers are accused of raping nearly 30 women, some at knifepoint.

The Commission subsequently reported that the administration in Nairobi had misplaced the files of the alleged victims.

CNN reports that Britain pays Kenya around $400,000 each year to conduct training near the country’s Laikipia and Samburu wildlife sanctuaries. A new clause in the agreement allows British soldiers to be sued in Kenyan courts. According to CNN, Lawyer Kelvin Kubai wants to reopen rape charges against over 300 women.

“The Kenyan legal system offers better remedies than the British one,” he said CNNThere is no statute of limitations for human rights violations under Kenyan law, so victims of rape decades ago could potentially be entitled to compensation.

Many of the accusers died while waiting for their cases to be heard.