Women stage protest over 'rape' by British troops

Published on 15/08/2003 01:00

SCORES of women, carrying mixed-race children they claim were the results of rape by British soldiers, demonstrated in Nairobi yesterday to demand an inquiry into their claims.

As they protested outside the British High Commission they demanded that Britain pay for the education of their mixed-race children.

The women, who are from the Maasai and Samburu tribes, are also asking the Kenyan government to investigate their claims.

The London law firm Leigh, Day and Co is preparing a class action suit against the Ministry of Defence in the name of 650 women from Archer’s Post and Dol Dol, two settlements near the area in north central Kenya where British troops have done tropical training since 1972.

Last month, Britain granted the women legal aid funds to pursue their case.

The women claim their children suffer taunts in local schools and say, since they were fathered by British soldiers, the army should pay for them to be educated in another part of the country.

The British high commissioner, Edward Clay, said the government takes the allegations seriously and an investigation has begun.