British soldiers have been cleared over allegations that they raped hundreds of tribeswomen during training exercises in Kenya,
The Times has learnt.
An inquiry that has cost the British taxpayer more than £3 million has established that police records were forged with the connivance of senior Kenyan officers to support the claims.
The findings, being made public today, are certain to increase tensions between Britain and its former East African colony. Relations are already strained over British accusations of high-level corruption and demands for ministerial dismissals.
The investigation by the Royal Military Police (RMP) has concluded that there is not one single case to answer out of 2,187 reported rapes. A team of 12 to 18 investigators spent ten months in Kenya between October 2003 and July 2004 and interviewed all 2,187 claimants, most of whom were Masai and Samburu tribeswomen from some of the most remote areas, where about 3,000 British servicemen train every year.
Working with local interpreters, the investigators deemed only 281 cases worthy of further examination. These fell apart on closer scrutiny and during follow-up interviews with other local people and former members of the Army in Britain.
“No corroborative evidence which will stand up in a UK court of law, and which might lead to a successful prosecution of any named individual, could be found to support any of the rape allegations,” a source linked to the investigation said.
Today’s report also exonerates senior British army officers who were on duty in Kenya at the time and to whom the claimants alleged they had reported the incidents. “There are no grounds to believe in any institutional acquiescence,” the report states.
When the allegations surfaced in the summer of 2003, several women with mixed-race babies, claimed to be the products of rapes by British soldiers, staged demonstrations outside the British High Commission in Nairobi and demanded compensation. It appears that the children resulted from consensual sex or rapes by other men. One woman told The Times that her baby was the result of an affair with an Italian exchange student, but took part in the protest after she was told that there was a chance of large payouts.
The inquiry uncovered dozens of forged entries in police files about the alleged incidents, some of which dated back 55 years. “All entries relating to the alleged rapes had been fabricated, some of them some considerable time afterwards,” the source said. The forgeries, some astonishingly clumsy, at time almost farcical, were uncovered by British scientific experts working with Kenyan counterparts, who concurred with the findings.
A “chief” named in one submission turned out to be an askari, or local security guard. In another, a “British army commander” to whom one incident was allegedly reported, was identified as an army engineer installing a borehole. In many cases the army units were not present in Kenya at the time of reported incidents.
“We are not saying women were not raped, just that there is nothing to show they were by British soldiers,” another investigating source said. “What we are able to show is a doctoring of evidence. The evidence is simply not credible.”
The report’s conclusions underwent a four-month review and vetting process before receiving the independent endorsement of Devon & Cornwall Constabulary.
The findings represent a significant setback for Martyn Day, a British human rights lawyer, whose firm, Leigh Day & Co, compiled the rape allegations. Mr Day worked closely with Impact, a local non-governmental organisation that has been shunned by Western aid agencies because of concerns about alleged financial irregularities. Impact is said to have offered payments to several women who went on to claim that they were raped. Mr Day has been involved in a number of cases against the British Government in Kenya, including a recent attempt to win compensation for Mau Mau veterans alleging torture.
He has been accused of feeding a compensation frenzy after winning several million pounds for alleged victims of unexploded ordnance left by the British Army. As many as 233 claimants shared £4.5 million in 2003, but admit openly that their claims were bogus and their wounds the result of activities unconnected with the British Army.
The Kenyan Government was informed officially yesterday of the findings of the investigation but declined to comment. British diplomats, bracing themselves for allegations of a cover-up and possible angry backlash from Kenyan members of parliament and women’s rights groups, emphasise that the outcome of the inquiry does not mean that all the rape allegations are lies, simply that there are no grounds to bring criminal charges.
From colonial rule to independent democracy
1886 Germany and Britain divide territory ruled by the Sultan of Zanzibar along a line drawn through Mount Kilimanjaro and Lake Victoria at latitude 1° S
1895 Kenya is incorporated into an East Africa Company protectorate
1920 Kenya becomes a British colony
1921 Kikuyu people found first African political protest movement, the Young Kikuyu Association, led by Harry Thuku. This was to become the Kenya African Union (KAU), an African nationalist organisation demanding access to white-owned land.
1925 Colonial Government suppresses organisations attempting to reclaim land appropriated by white settlers
1952-56 The Government fiercely represses the Mau Mau rebellion, a violent campaign against colonial rule
1957 The first direct elections for Africans to the Legislative Council.
1960 African candidates gain the majority of seats in legislative council for the first time
1963 Jomo Kenyatta’s ruling Kanu party declares Kenyan independence from Britain
1982 National Assembly amended the constitution, making Kenya officially a one-party state.
1991 Multi-party system restored
Source: Historyworld.net
