The UK military has reportedly investigated 24 allegations of soldiers soliciting sex in Kenya since it was banned two years ago, a report from Declassified claims. But this is not the first time British soldiers have been accused of committing sex crimes in Kenya.
Under JSP 769: Zero Tolerance to Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, which banned the solicitation of prostitutes in 2022, troops were warned that sex workers are “frequently trafficked, coerced or underage”. But in a letter to parliament, written by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), they claimed that they could not find any evidence of “transactional sex” in Kenya by soldiers.
However, the letter was issued after the MoD told Kenny MacAskill, a Scottish politician, that there had been three incidents despite there having been 24 allegations.
According to the Declassified report, the ban on soliciting prostitutes in Kenya was first passed following the outrage of Agnes Wanjiru's murder. Wanjiru was a young Kenyan mother who was allegedly killed by a British soldier in 2012. The 21-year-old’s body was found in a septic tank after she went out partying with British soldiers at a hotel in the town of Nanyuki, where the British army has a permanent garrison.
In 2021, Britain's The Sunday Times newspaper reported that a soldier had admitted to his comrades that he killed Wanjiru and showed them her body. The Times said that the murder was taken to military superiors, but no further action was taken. The victim’s family filed a lawsuit against the British army in Kenya as well as other authorities who failed to address her murder.
This year, recent reports from British media have revealed that the prime suspect behind the 21-year-old’s murder is “still at large in England” as police and the army have failed to address the crime. At least five soldiers have identified the same man they say killed Wanjiru.
Wanjiru’s niece, Esther Njoki has expressed her disappointment that none of the 24 suspected prostitution cases will lead to justice.
“It’s saddening that no one has been prosecuted even after the policy was passed,” Njoki told Declassified. She also expressed frustration that her aunt’s murder has yet to be solved after a decade. “How is this still continuing even after all these stories come to light? Nothing has changed.”
Emma Norton, the director of the Center for Military Justice, said the new policy isn’t working.
“Our new Government needs to urgently understand why the policy isn’t working, because the purchasing of sex by soldiers from local women in places where the British Army is deployed is an obvious and appalling abuse of power,” said Norton.
Declassified said they visited Nanyuki a few months after the ban was passed, and asked if it was working. One hospitality worker, a barman, said there was “no way” UK soldiers were following that rule. And said that “every night of every week they are going out with girls”.
CNN interviewed a group of mixed-race children who were conceived through the rape of Kenyan women by British soldiers, the women said, according to a report form mid-June.
The CNN report added that mixed-race children continue to be born in remote villages where the British Army trains its soldiers. Nanyuki is where the British Army Training Unit (BATUK) is located. BATUK fell under investigation by the Defense, Intelligence and Foreign Relations committee of Kenya's National Assembly, as of mid-June.
UK military courts have a terrible track record for handling violence against women cases, as well. Military courts have a 23% conviction rate for rape, while civilian courts have a 70% conviction rate.