British army in Kenya: Soldier detained over rape allegation
A UK soldier has been accused of raping a woman near a British army training camp in Kenya where another soldier has previously been accused of murder.The alleged rape happened last month close to the British Army Training Unit Kenya (Batuk) near the town of Nanyuki, 200km (125 miles) north of the capital, Nairobi.The man was arrested and questioned following the alleged incident after a group of soldiers visited a bar in the town.An investigation is being carried out by UK military police from the Defence Serious Crime Unit which looks into crimes allegedly committed by British service personnel in the UK and overseas.
The UK Ministry of Defence confirmed in a statement that a "service person" had been detained in Kenya."Unacceptable and criminal behaviour has absolutely no place in our Armed Forces and any reporting of a serious crime by serving personnel is investigated independently from their chain of command," the MoD said.The alleged rape involving a soldier from the British base in Kenya follows previous allegations that a soldier stationed in Kenya was involved in the murder of a local woman in 2012.The body of Agnes Wanjiru, who was 21 and a mother of one, was found in a septic tank near the Batuk base three weeks after she disappeared, allegedly after spending the evening with British soldiers.The Sunday Times reported in 2021 that a British soldier was believed to have been responsible for her murder.The MoD has since said it is cooperating with a Kenyan investigation into the incident.The Batuk base was established in 1964 shortly after the East African nation gained independence from the UK.The UK military has an agreement with Kenya under which it can deploy up to six army battalions a year for periods of training at the site.But the British army has faced a string of allegations about the conduct of some UK personnel at the camp.A public inquiry set up by Kenyan MPs last year heard details of alleged mistreatment of local people by British soldiers.The allegations including a reported hit-and-run incident, and claims that some British soldiers had got local women pregnant before abandoning them and their children when they returned to the UK.
You may also be interested in:
Agnes Wanjiru murder: Kenya family's anger over UK army 'cover-up'Kenyans sue the British army over fire at wildlife sanctuary
Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
'No one cares what happened to you - you are not Brittany Higgins': Political staffer with a disturbingly familiar story exposes $2.4m taxpayer funded compo double standard
A parliamentary researcher who allegedly suffered a similar rape and bullying ordeal to Brittany Higgins says the government treated her completely differently. Anna Hough, 46, alleges she was raped as a young woman in politics and then bullied and discriminated against by her bosses after she raised it with them. Ms Hough claims she was sexually abused and raped by a political staffer while volunteering for the Australian Democrats between 2000 and 2001. When Ms Higgins went public in 2021 to famously disclose her alleged rape by Bruce Lehrmann, Ms Hough said it triggered her trauma from her own experience years earlier which led her to finally tell her bosses. But Ms Hough alleges that instead of being offered support by the Department of Parliamentary Services, she was sidelined and bullied by her managers. The mother-of-three from Canberra lodged a legal claim against the Federal Government in September 2023 covering both the alleged historic assaults and alleged bullying. But while Ms Higgins was given a $2.4million settlement after one day of mediation, Ms Hough claims she was instead treated like a 'second-class victim'. She told Daily Mail Australia she has been twice asked to sign non-disclosure agreements by the Labor Government and was given low-ball cash offers to settle. Now, after the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) found on Thursday there was 'no corruption issue' with Ms Higgins' huge settlement - which was signed after a day partly to avoid 'ongoing trauma' - Ms Hough has spoken out. 'I was a victim of alleged parliamentary workplace rape, sexual assault, bullying and discrimination but the Commonwealth has shown no concern about ongoing trauma to me,' Ms Hough told Daily Mail Australia. 'Instead, I have been offered a tiny fraction of the compensation, told repeatedly by lawyers and journalists that "no one cares what happened to you because you are not Brittany Higgins", and pressured to sign NDAs.' Ms Hough said some of the reasons she had been given by lawyers for the dramatic difference in settlement figures included that, 'you weren't a Liberal staffer', and 'that was a political decision'. '(But) we are supposed to have equality before the law in Australia,' she said. 'That should mean that if the Prime Minister, say, gets a speeding ticket he has to pay it the same way you or I do. 'And that if I am mistreated in the workplace, I get the same compensation as someone else who is similarly mistreated, whether they are the CEO or the cleaner.' Ms Hough stressed that her issue was with the government's handling of her own case, not how Ms Higgins' was treated. 'To be clear, I am not attacking Brittany Higgins, I am attacking the government and its inconsistency,' she said. The NACC said on Thursday that 'a critical consideration during the settlement process was avoiding ongoing trauma to Ms Higgins'. The former Liberal Party staffer's claim for alleged bullying and victimisation - not the rape itself - took about 11 months before it was resolved after a single day of mediation. 'But mine has now taken 20 months and counting,' Ms Hough said. 'The Commonwealth took four months just to respond to our first settlement offer. 'No one has shown any interest in avoiding ongoing trauma to me.' On Thursday morning, the NACC took the extraordinary step of revealing its preliminary findings into Ms Higgins' case to 'clear the air' around the 'scrutiny and speculation' surrounding the payout. It found that there was 'no corruption issue' involving any public officials. It also stated that the resolution of mediation after just a day was 'unexceptional' and revealed that Ms Higgins actually received less than the maximum amount recommended by external legal advice. Ms Higgins' former boss Senator Linda Reynolds, who lodged the original complaint, said she was 'bitterly disappointed' by the findings. 'My primary concern has always been how the Commonwealth could possibly settle unsubstantiated and statute barred claims made against me, alleging egregious conduct on my part without taking a single statement from me or speaking to me at all,' she said. Senator Reynolds has also launched legal action against the Commonwealth over the compensation payment, alleging that government lawyers were 'hopelessly conflicted'. The NACC said the question of whether Ms Higgins told mistruths during the pay-off talks was outside of their remit. 'Whether Ms Higgins made misrepresentations during the negotiations is not within the scope of the Commission's jurisdiction, as at the relevant time she was not a Commonwealth public official,' the NACC statement said. In his judgment in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case last year, Federal Court Judge Michael Lee found that Ms Higgins made at least nine untrue representations when negotiating her settlement with the commission. Senator Reynolds noted that 'the NACC highlighted that whether or not a corruption issue exists is a different issue from whether there has been any breach of duty, misfeasance or negligence by the Commonwealth or its lawyers in relation to the settlement'. 'This distinction further reinforces the importance of my decision to pursue these issues in the Federal Court,' she added. Ms Reynolds is also awaiting the outcome of a blockbuster defamation claim she brought against Ms Higgins and her husband David Sharaz over social media posts the pair made about her. A judgement is expected to be handed down in the Supreme Court of Western Australia later this month. Ms Hough first went public with her allegations in an interview with Sky News in April. Ms Hough said her motivation was the 'principle that all survivors deserve justice - regardless of their profile, role, or the media attention their case attracts'. 'I've been silenced for too long,' she added. 'Given the ALP's response to an alleged Parliament House rape cover up last election, the hypocrisy on display in their treatment of me, particularly in trying to silence me, is quite something.' Ms Hough has not had an affiliation with a political party since 2012 and has never been a member of the Liberal Party. She was a 21-year-old university student working as a volunteer for the Australian Democrats when she alleges she was raped and sexually assaulted by a political staffer between April 2000 and May 2001. 'The power imbalance, combined with a total lack of reporting mechanisms and a culture of silence, made it impossible for me to speak up,' she told Sky News. 'When I sought help outside the party after the first assault, I was made to feel that it was my fault. No one suggested I report the assault, seek counselling, or speak to the police.' It was later, during the MeToo era, when Ms. Higgins came forward with her own trauma, that Ms. Hough started suffering PTSD symptoms. At that stage, she had been working in the Department of Parliamentary Services since 2016. She disclosed her trauma to her bosses who allegedly failed to offer support. 'Instead of being supported, I was pressured to step down from a more senior acting role, denied a promotion, and treated as a burden,' she added. 'The bullying and discrimination I faced at DPS were re-traumatising.' She quit her role in April 2023 and filed her legal claim against the Commonwealth five months later. Ms Hough claims she was twice asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement during settlement negotiations. But a spokesperson for the Attorney-General's Department has previously denied that they would ask any victims to stay silent with the use of non-disclosure agreements. Daily Mail Australia approached the Attorney-General's department for further comment. During her time working in parliament, Ms Hough contributed to the Set the Standard report, which examined workplace behaviour and culture in the corridors of power. She has also continued to call for the establishment of a redress scheme for survivors of abuse in Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Protesters in Kenya's capital demand official answers over a blogger's death in police custody
Protesters took to the streets of the Kenyan capital on Thursday to vent their anger over the death of a blogger in police custody. Albert Ojwang was arrested June 5 in Homa Bay in western Kenya and driven 400 kilometers (248 miles) to Nairobi for what police said was publishing 'false information' about a top police official on social media. He subsequently died at the Central Police Station after 'hitting his head against the cell wall,' police said. Amnesty International and local activists have questioned that account. The protesters occupied the road in Nairobi leading to the parliamentary building, where the national budget was due to be presented Thursday. At least two cars were set on fire in a street nearby. Police on Monday fired tear gas to disperse another protest demanding accountability for Ojwang's death. Authorities have since said an official investigation is underway. President William Ruto in a statement on Wednesday said Ojwang's death was 'heartbreaking and unacceptable." 'I strongly condemn the actions and omissions, including any negligence or outright criminality, that may have contributed to his untimely death,' Ruto said. The blogger's death comes almost a year after several activists and protesters were killed and abducted by Kenyan police during finance bill protests. The rallies led to calls for the removal of Ruto, who has been criticized for what some say is his authoritarian streak.
Reuters
12 hours ago
- Reuters
Kenya's budget to weigh revenue growth against public outrage
NAIROBI, June 12 (Reuters) - Kenya's finance minister will present a budget on Thursday aimed at boosting revenues to service debt while avoiding tax measures that triggered the kind of deadly protests that rocked East Africa's biggest economy last year. President William Ruto's administration has been struggling to narrow the fiscal deficit and govern under a heavy total debt-to-GDP ratio of around two-thirds, well above the 55% level considered a sustainable threshold. The government is seeking new sources of funding after last year's countrywide protests forced it to pursue austerity measures and scrap planned tax hikes worth more than 346 billion Kenyan shillings ($2.7 billion). "Kenyans cannot bear more tax," Finance Minister John Mbadi said on Wednesday. "For the first time, we have not added taxes in the current finance bill as has been the case before." Critics have accused the government of using the budget to increase indirect taxes and infringe on privacy by empowering the tax authority to spy on people's bank accounts and mobile money transactions. But Mbadi said on Wednesday the revenue authority must be empowered to collect taxes to run the country. In place of hiking individual taxes, Mbadi is looking to widen the tax base, improve compliance and cut spending, said John Kuria, a tax specialist and partner at Kody Africa. "They understand that people are not very happy, especially with the government and how the taxes are being used," Kuria said. Despite government attempts to tighten expenditure and crack down on fraud, "I think we're still going to have a significant funding shortfall," he said. While the proposed budget outlines credible measures to reduce the fiscal deficit, the challenge lies in implementation, which Kenya has struggled with historically, said Shani Smit-Lengton, Senior Economist at Oxford Economics Africa. This often results in mid-year revisions through supplementary budgets, which erode fiscal credibility, Smit-Lengton told Reuters via email. Kenya said in March it had applied for a new lending programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after abandoning the final review on the previous IMF programme. In February it joined a fast-growing club of African nations that have gone to the market to borrow cash to pay off maturing debts in a bid to smooth out liabilities and ring-fence critical expenditures like health. "This year, the stakes are higher: the government must demonstrate improved budget discipline to bolster its case for a new IMF programme, while also managing public sentiment to avoid social unrest. "Achieving this balance will be critical to maintaining both investor confidence and domestic stability," Smit-Lengton said, adding that the government's target of reducing the fiscal deficit to 4.5% in the next financial year was overly optimistic. ($1 = 129.0000 Kenyan shillings)
