A British soldier was arrested for accusations of rape recently committed in Kenya, BBC announced on Sunday, June 8, his arrest was confirmed by London.
The alleged violation occurred last month in Nanyuki, north of Nairobi, according to the BBC, near the British Army Formation Unit in Kenya (Batuuk), which is in the heart of many controversies, even in particular the murder in 2012 of a young view for the last time with a British soldier.
“We can confirm the arrest of a soldier in Kenya,” said a spokesman for the British Ministry of Defense to the AFP. An investigation by the British Military Police, “we will not make comments,” he added.
650 accusations of rape against British soldiers in Kenya
According to the BBC, the incriminated soldier went to a Nanyuki bar with other soldiers before the alleged facts.
These accusations aimed at Batuuk, a significant source of income for the local economy, were behind disputes between the old British colonial power and Kenya, regardless since 1963.
In 2012, the body of a young Kenyan, Agnes Wanjiru, had been found in a septic well after being seen alive for the last time with a British soldier. However, the case, which had reached the headlines, had resulted in any arrest.
In 2021, after years of procrastination, the Kenya police announced to relaunch the investigation after the revelations of the Sunday Times. According to British Weekly, citing several soldiers’ testimonies, the soldier had confessed the same night to his comrades that killed the victim and the murder had been denounced to the military hierarchy, without suites.
In early April, for the first time, a British defense minister John Healey met with Agnes Wanjiru’s family, promising “total support to Kenya’s authorities in charge of the investigation.”
In 2003, the Amnesty International Human Rights NGOs claimed to have listed 650 accusations of violation against British soldiers in Kenya between 1965 and 2001, denouncing “decades of impunity.”
Source: BFM TV
