Raped Kenyans Demand Costs Of Raising UK-Mixed Children
Two protesters carry their mixed-race daughters
NAIROBI, August 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Kenyan women, who were raped by British soldiers over a period spanning 30 years, demonstrated here Thursday, August 14, urging Britain to pay for the cost of raising their mixed-race children.
Some 50 women and their 60 children were led by their London lawyer, Martyn Day, to the British High Commission (embassy) offices in Nairobi, where they presented their petition to the high commissioner, Edward Clay.
"In their petition, these women are formally urging the British government to pay for the cost of raising their mixed-race children, particularly for their education," Day told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He said it was the first formal meeting the women had been granted with British officials on the matter, adding: "They seem to appreciate the magnitude of the case."
His clients have demanded that both London and Nairobi immediately set up a public inquiry into the rape cases, which, according to Day, were reported to the authorities as early as 1977 but were never investigated.
The victims, joined on Thursday in Nairobi by several human rights and women rights activists, both sang and cried as they recounted how they were raped, sometimes by gangs of British soldiers.
"We Want Our Dignity. British Soldiers are Rapists. Go Home Johnnies, Do You (Britain) Have Any Rules," read some of the banners brandished at the entrance of the British embassy, in Nairobi's plush southern Upper Hill suburb.
Hamna Noor, a seven-year-old girl born to a Kenyan woman and absentee British father, toted a particularly heart-rending banner: "Britain, These Are Half Your Children, Take Responsibility, Please Dad."
Investigation
Scores of Kenyan women say they were raped by British soldiers
Clay said in a statement that London had tasked the Royal Military Police (RMP) to carry out an "independent, robust and vigorous investigation into the allegations."
"I assure you that we take these allegations seriously. I hope that you and all your colleagues and the whole community, will give your cooperation to the RMP," Clay said.
Day is seeking up to 20 million pounds (28.8 million euros, $33.3 million) in damages from Britain for around 650 Maasai and Samburu women, who he said "have lived with agony for decades."
Kenya's junior justice minister, Robinson Githae, apologized to the women for the suffering they have endured, but warned that British troops would continue to train in the country.
"I apologies to the women on behalf of the government for the pain and shame they underwent under British troops," Githae told a press conference in Nairobi held jointly with Day.
"From now, we have broken the silence and if any such case is reported again, the culprits will face the full face of the law," he said, adding that the most recent rape case was reported eight months ago.
But he said the British army, which currently has a battalion training in northern Kenya, would continue to use Kenyan ranges to conduct live-fire war games "as long as they are subject to the Kenyan law."
"We invited them here. We expect them to respect the Kenyan law," Githae told reporters.
Responding to a request from the women's lawyer, however, Githae pledged to empower Kenyan security forces to enter British training camps and carry out arrests in should further rape cases be reported.
"From now the British troops are not allowed to roam in the villages as they did before," the minister said.
Compensation
Githae also said the Kenyan government would assist the women's efforts to secure compensation from Britain's defense department and would entrust a yet-to-be established Kenyan Truth Commission with probing the case.
He also enlisted human rights groups to counsel the rape victims and called to campaign against discrimination targeting mixed-race children.
"In Africa, children are a blessing, please accept them," he told the delegation of women and children.
Last November, Day obtained from London a 4.5 million-dollar out-of-court compensation package for 232 Kenyan tribesmen, for a trail of death and injuries caused by explosions of live ordnance left behind by British troops. |
