Tag: Kenya

Two years ago, British soldiers were cooking on an army exercise in Kenya when things suddenly spiralled out of control. Sparks from their small stove ignited the grass at Lolldaiga, on the foothills of Mount Kenya.  This might have been a minor incident, had the area not been so dry. Unfortunately, these were “tinderbox” conditions, […]

In 2015, a teenage boy stumbled across a strange metal object while playing football. Lisoka Lesasuyan, 13, had unwittingly found a mortar fuze. “It exploded in his hands,” his father Lawan tells me as we sit on the outskirts of Dol Dol, a dust swept settlement three hours drive down dirt roads from a UK […]

High up on a hill near Mount Kenya, Irene Kipsuge looks out over a rolling savanna. In the distance lies Lolldaiga, a safari resort where Western tourists pay up to $400 a night to stay in a colonial settler-style house, in the hope of seeing elephants. To her left is Ole Naishu, another nature reserve […]

“I miss her so much – she was like a big sister to me,” reflects Esther Njoki, a wise 18 year old whose aunt Agnes Wanjiru was brutally murdered by a British soldier in 2012. Her body was found in a hotel septic tank months after she went missing. “There’s still no progress on extraditing […]

Wilson Kiget’s mother Lydia was just 13 years old when she was first raped by a white farmer in Kenya. The assault came during British colonial rule in the 1930s, after the settler helped himself to the family’s fertile land.  “My mother worked on his tea plantation for ten years,” Wilson explains nervously. “She was […]

In 2015, Lisoka Lesasuyan was playing with his friends on the spectacular safari plains of northern Kenya when he picked up a strange metal object. It was a discovery that would change this 13-year-old boy’s life forever. In his hands was a fuze from a mortar bomb. It had failed to explode upon impact during […]

British soldiers on training exercises in Kenya have used white phosphorus on 15 occasions since 2017, Declassified has found. White phosphorus can cause horrific burns to human skin and multiple organ failure, with Russia facing criticism from the UK for allegedly firing it in Ukraine this April. The British army claims its own use of […]

A letter delivered to Prince William’s household in London today seeks justice for a notorious land grab in East Africa. It comes from a group of Kenyans whose ancestral land was stolen by British imperial forces. They are calling on the royal family to apologise and make reparations. The move follows a wave of protests […]

Defence minister James Heappey said today UK soldiers have deployed white phosphorus mortar rounds on training exercises in Kenya “where conditions have permitted their use”.  He added it provided “illumination for training at night, as well as for smoke screening purposes”. White phosphorus is not currently banned as a chemical weapon but has similar effects. […]

British army investigators found evidence that discarded ammunition in Kenya, which maimed a 13 year-old boy, almost certainly came from a UK training exercise. The information was not shared with the boy’s father, who accepted a reduced “no liability” payout from Britain’s defence ministry on the basis there was an equal chance the explosive was […]

Britain’s army headquarters in Kenya destroyed “the majority of physical files” created before 2015, it has emerged. The Ministry of Defence made the admission in response to a freedom of information (FOI) request about live firing by troops training in Kenya. Lisoka Lesasuyan, a 13-year-old Kenyan boy, lost both arms and an eye when in […]

A Kenyan judge recently ruled that the country’s courts have the authority to hear a compensation claim against the British army. The decision paves the way for nearly 1,500 Kenyans to sue UK troops for starting a huge fire near Mount Kenya last March. One man was killed while trying to fight the fire on […]

The Kenya Wildlife Service, which operates a shoot-to-kill policy against ivory hunters, was advised by a senior British military intelligence officer intimately involved in the conflict in Northern Ireland.  Colonel Colin Parr visited Kenya between tours during the ‘Troubles’ when he allegedly ran ‘Stakeknife’ – an informant at the heart of the IRA’s internal security […]

An 82-year-old Kenyan man who developed breathing difficulties after exposure to a fire sparked by British troops has died. Murage Gitonga passed away on 19 November following a throat cancer diagnosis, Declassified has found.  In his youth Gitonga was a gun maker for Kenya’s Land and Freedom Army (or Mau Mau). The resistance movement fought […]

Lisoka Lesasuyan was playing with friends in a field when suddenly his life turned upside down. A fireball blasted away his arms, gouged his right eye and scarred his chest. He was 13 years old.  The explosion happened in 2015 at Archers Post, a vast bushland near the iconic Mount Kenya. British and local troops […]

The government is refusing to reveal the carbon emissions of a new aircraft carrier on a round the world voyage. Ministers sent HMS Queen Elizabeth to the Pacific where it patrolled near Taiwan, worsening UK relations with Beijing.  The gunboat diplomacy took place weeks before crucial climate talks at which Boris Johnson wants China to […]

The revelation comes days before the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is due in court to defend itself against a compensation claim being brought by 1,400 Kenyans. They blame British troops for accidentally burning down 12,000 acres (nearly 50 square kilometres) of land in central Kenya earlier this year. Declassified understands that UK government lawyers are […]

Britain’s Foreign Office knew Kenya’s Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) was involved in renditions of terror suspects yet paid for its new headquarters and continues assistance programmes, along with London’s Metropolitan Police, disclosures obtained by Declassified UK show.

Three intelligence officers tell Declassified UK that Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, tracked and arranged the arrest of Michael Adebolajo in Kenya, contradicting MI6’s testimony to two intelligence oversight reviews.

One of Britain’s oldest private security companies has admitted to UN experts that it shared an office building in west London with a group of mercenaries being investigated for alleged war crimes – but denies involvement.

As two political prisoners face execution in Bahrain, the country’s repressive justice system remains rooted in the career of Ian Henderson – one of the most notorious police officers the British empire ever produced, who caused suffering to scores of Bahrainis including members of my family.

US and Kenyan diplomatic and intelligence officials tell Declassified UK why the CIA set up a covert paramilitary counter-terror team, how it flies recruits to the US for special training, and why Britain helps gather intelligence on targets. 

A covert Kenyan paramilitary team armed and trained by the US and supported by UK intelligence is behind renditions and controversial killings of terror suspects in night-time raids, Declassified UK can reveal.