Left behind in Kenya, the children of British soldiers struggle to find their identity

NANYUKI, Kenya (AP) – Margaret Wandia became pregnant after a week-long affair with British soldiers training near her community in Kenya. They met when he was working at a bar in his early 20s. He knew little about himself. He left her with a child of two nations.

That son is now 26, and is part of a Kenyan lawyer's effort to take dozens of such children to Britain. The goal is to confront the authorities over the hundreds of such cases reported over the years, and to find the fathers and seek their support.

It is a long shot after years of efforts by human rights groups to force British soldiers and their personnel to account for their actions during weeks of training in Kenya – including allegations of rape – and the children they left behind.

The countries' $44 million defense cooperation agreement was renewed in 2021. We allow up to 10,000 British soldiers to train for eight weeks in Kenya every year. The ethnic Kenyan children are part of wider concerns about the British mission, particularly the ongoing allegations of rape of local girls and women.

Like many mixed-race children in predominantly conservative Kenya, Wandia's son, Louise Gitonga, said she felt marginalized by society and left out of education and job opportunities because she was “too white.”

“I have a problem with who I am that has led me to alcohol,” Gitonga, who is unemployed, told the Associated Press at his home in Nanyuki town centre. “Everywhere I pass people call me white. Some call me albino. These words hurt me and hurt me a lot.”

His mother recalled taking him to boarding school and being asked to pay more for her white child. She later married a local farmer, Paul Wachira, who acknowledged the challenges of raising a biracial child.

“Sometimes I had to hide him from the whole family during gatherings to avoid many questions, as he looks very different from his brothers,” said Wachira.

Kenyan lawyer Kelvin Kubai represents 10 such children of British soldiers. He pointed out that not all of their parents' relationships are harmonious. Working with a British law firm that he declined to disclose, he hopes to take some of the children to Britain next year and take them to court.

“You know, such children do not know the conditions under which they were born,” said Kubai.

He hopes they will get citizenship. According to British law, children born to British citizens are eligible for British citizenship and the care of both parents if they are under 18 years of age. Seven of Kuba's children are under the age of 18. For those over 18, the journey is about self-discovery and support.

Kubai is also raising money – $4,600 so far – for DNA testing to help find the children's fathers.

The identity crisis affects children born to white fathers. Kubai said he has not yet found children of black British fathers. “It would not be easy to see them and they would face discrimination,” he said.

A spokesman for the British High Commission in a statement to the AP said that along with British military training missions in Kenya “they cooperate fully with local child support authorities where there are claims related to the father.” Those authorities did not respond to questions.

But Kenyan mothers and civil society groups have long said British authorities have had little or no help.

Generica Namoru, 29, has a 5-year-old child after dating a British man on a coaching job. The man's name appears on the birth certificate as the father after he agreed and shared his documents about the plan.

Namoru said that the man first accepted the child and communicated with him but refused to send maintenance money. He sought help from the offices of the British Army Training Unit Kenya. He said they would not listen.

“Sometimes they even stopped me from entering the gate,” he said. Now he is represented by Kubai.

The mixed-race children in the area near the British training base date back to the 1960s when Kenya was under British rule. Those born in the past decades are also part of the current efforts to seek justice and support.

David Mwangi Macharia, 68, is nicknamed “British” because of his light skin tone. He said his mother had a relationship with a British soldier. He works as a night and part-time security guard after dropping out of primary school due to teasing and discrimination.

“(Kenyans) always think that I cannot do menial jobs even though I am uneducated,” said Macharia. He has even found it difficult to get along with his black siblings.

Efforts to hold visiting British troops accountable have long been met with little success, Kenyans say.

Marion Mutugi, commissioner of Kenya's National Human Rights Commission, said the relationship between British soldiers and local women ranged from consensual to commercial to coercive.

The commission says it has documented more than 200 cases of rape involving British soldiers between 1983 and 2003, and is still gathering information.

Britain's Ministry of Defense dismissed the rape cases as “genuine,” and an investigation by the Royal Military Police in 2007 did not lead to compensation or justice for the victims, the KNCHR said in a report to the Kenyan parliament complaining about the country's revival of the past. 'defense agreement.

“(The authorities) are also interfering with the investigation by endangering the local community. Human rights defenders on the ground are threatened and intimidated by BATUK and the Kenyan military and Kenyan officials to ensure that justice is not served,” said Mutugi.

“Our point at the Commission is that they wanted to put a Band-Aid on the wound instead of drowning, face it and operate,” added the Commissioner.

The British High Commission said it was looking into the allegations. The Kenyan authorities have not responded to these allegations.

The most famous case is that of Agnes Wanjiru, who was killed in 2012 after spending the night with British soldiers. An inquest in 2019 concluded that Wanjiru was killed by British soldiers but no suspect has been charged. Public hearings by Kenya's parliamentary defense committee, which began in May, renewed the investigation.

Kubai said he hopes to provide Kenyan children of British soldiers with a much-needed sense of identity.

“What we are bringing to the UK court is not just the issue of rape, it is the issue of these children who may be prisoners of their own choosing,” he said.

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