British soldiers raped Kenyan women: lawyer

 By STELLAR MURUMBA newsdesk@ke.nationmedia.com, Saturday, June 15  2013  

 

In Summary

• In a letter authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), Mr Day asked Mr Tobiko to undertake fresh investigations to try and locate the documents obtained by the Royal Military Police (RMP) in investigating claims that Kenyan women were raped by British soldiers

A British lawyer has pursued the attention of the Director of Public Prosecution Mr Keriako Tobiko, alleging that Kenyan women were raped by British soldiers.

Mr Martyn Day, a Senior Partner of Leigh Day & Company in London represented many women from the Samburu and Maasai areas in Northern Kenya who alleged they had been raped by British soldiers therefore claiming damages.

In a letter authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), Mr Day asked Mr Tobiko to undertake fresh investigations to try and locate the documents obtained by the Royal Military Police (RMP) in investigating the claims.

“The British RMP interviewed all women in the period April 2003 to July 2004 and took over 500 witness statements and obtained 1,778 police logs from 30 police stations of women making allegations,” the letter read.

The letter dated June 13, 2013 indicated RMP formed the view that 23 entries relating to 65 complaints had been forged, something that was dismissed by Mr Day.

“In my view that is simply nonsense. The documents were not presented to us, we located them in the records in local clinics and police stations,” he said.

Mr Day noted that while working in Kenya in 2002 they were approached by a number of Maasai and Samburu women telling them that British soldiers on manoeuvers in Kenya had raped them.

He said that there are a group of core cases where there was documentary evidence supporting the claims of children who had been injured and killed by unexploded ordinance left on army ranges by the British.

Following the closure of the RMP investigation, Mr Day said he tried to locate the original documents and was told they had gone missing.

“I met with the head of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Nairobi to ask that they track the down and he told me they were last seen with the Office of the President and could not be located,” he said.

He said without those documents, any remaining chance of proving the claims of the women for compensation by the British government is likely to have gone and urged Mr Tobiko to investigate what happened to the documents.