According to reports, police barred a group from entering a location where they intended to hold a press conference on alleged misconduct by British troops.
A news conference to address concerns about suspected British Army wrongdoing in Kenya, including human rights and environmental crimes, was barred by Kenyan officials on Monday, according to Reuters.
The action was taken just hours before King Charles III of Britain and Queen Camilla arrived for a four-day official visit to the East African nation, which is commemorating this year’s 60th anniversary of independence from the UK. According to a previous statement from the royal family, the purpose of the visit on Tuesday is to honour the “more painful aspects” of our common past, such as the Mau Mau revolt that claimed thousands of Kenyan lives in the former British colony between 1952 and 1960.
Residents of the central town of Lolldaiga have accused the British Army Training Unit in Kenya (BATUK) of being complicit in the 2012 murder of a woman and of starting a forest fire in 2021 that devastated over 12,000 acres of a nature reserve.
Following a night of partying with soldiers, Agnes Wanjiru, 21, was stabbed to death and allegedly placed by UK military in a septic tank at a hotel in Nanyuki. Justice, according to Wanjiru’s family, has not yet been done more than ten years after her murder.
With over 100 permanent employees located in Nanyuki, 200 km north of Nairobi’s capital, BATUK is one of the UK’s biggest military training sites overseas. British authorities have pledged to look into the accusations made against the base.
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Following a surge of demonstrations from nearby villages around the army post in Laikipia County and a renewed outcry over Wanjiru’s unresolved case due to claims of a British soldier confessing to her death, the Kenyan government opened an investigation in August. By the end of the year, the investigation’s results should be presented to parliament.
The British Army is still disliked by the locals, though; some recently told RT that the soldiers don’t respect Kenyans and think they are immune, which is why many of the “crimes” they commit go unpunished.
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The head of a human rights organisation that assists those who claim to have suffered environmental harm in Lolldaiga, James Mwangi, told Reuters on Monday that police had forewarned the Nairobi hotel management about BATUK.
Additionally, the site said that a car with two smaller trucks and at least twenty police officers inside had blocked access to the location before the news conference could start.
According to Reuters, Kenyan attorney Tom Macharia, who represents the Lolldaiga community, the police actions were “poor optics… The monarch has started off on the wrong foot if he is sincere about this fresh start and rebuilding the relationship with Kenya.
According to reports, the British High Commission in Nairobi stated that local authorities in Kenya are in charge of policing protests.
