Nanyuki, a town near Mount Kenya, hosts a British army barracks. Photo: Zoonar via Alamy

The UK military has investigated 24 allegations that soldiers paid for sex in Kenya since it banned using prostitutes two years ago, Declassified can reveal.

Army chiefs passed the ban following outrage at the murder of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan woman who was killed by a British soldier on a night out in 2012.

Wanjiru, a young mother and occasional sex worker, was found dead in a hotel septic tank near a UK army training camp. 

Her murder suspect is still at large, sparking criticism of UK and Kenyan authorities.

Britain’s military launched a new Defence Serious Crime Command to improve handling of sexual assault cases.

And under a supposed “zero tolerance” policy using prostitutes was banned in 2022, with troops warned: “Sex workers are frequently trafficked, coerced or underage”.

However, none of the recent 24 incidents of “transactional sex” in Kenya could be proven by army investigators, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) claimed in a letter to parliament.

The department issued the letter after initially telling Scottish politician Kenny MacAskill there had been just three incidents.

The clarification was lodged in an obscure section of parliament’s website.

It was made during the general election frenzy by Conservative defence minister Andrew Murrison.

On the same day, he quietly corrected another parliamentary statementwhich omitted the fact British special forces could veto asylum applications by Afghan veterans.

An inquiry is currently investigating claims the SAS executed civilians in Afghanistan on operations which were often accompanied by Afghan commandos.

Asylum seekers from those units, known as the “Triples”, could provide crucial witness testimony to the inquiry.

Sleaze

Our revelation that none of the 24 suspected prostitution cases in Kenya were punished has disappointed Wanjiru’s niece, Esther Njoki.

“It’s saddening that no one has been prosecuted even after the policy was passed,” Njoki told Declassified, expressing doubt that all the soldiers were innocent.

Njoki, who is frustrated at the lack of progress in solving her aunt’s murder, added: “How is this still continuing even after all these stories come to light? Nothing has changed.”

Emma Norton, director of the Centre for Military Justice, commented: “In response to the dreadful allegations about Agnes Wanjiru’s killing, the MoD rightly instituted a ban on soldiers exploiting prostituted women. These figures show it isn’t working and is meaningless in practice.

“Our new Government needs to urgently understand why the policy isn’t working, because the purchasing of sex by soldiers from local women in places where the British Army is deployed is an obvious and appalling abuse of power.”

Britain’s armed forces have a poor track record when it comes to handling violence against women. Military courts have a 23% conviction rate for rape, compared to an average of 70% in civilian courts, according to openDemocracy.

The sex ban has been little advertised in Kenya, where thousands of British soldiers train each year. Declassified visited Nanyuki, the town where British troops are based, and interviewed hospitality staff about the ban four months after it was passed in 2022.

One barman laughed: “No way are they following that rule. Every night of every week they are going with girls, especially in down town. You see them partying there with these call girls.”

Another publican commented: “Nothing has changed. I’m sure they’re still paying women for sex, just now they might be more discreet.” A hotel receptionist said: “I’ve not even heard of that policy.” 

Another source said a series of rented apartments in the town and near the army’s base were being used as brothels. A documentary broadcast by Kenyan channel NTV last year secretly filmed a British soldier paying for sex.

One army unit has a reputation for holding an initiation ceremony for soldiers deploying to Kenya for the first time: “Part of your initiation, to prove how brave you are, is to have sex with a local prostitute. The more senior soldiers would flip a coin, heads you could use a condom, tails you could not.”

The claim was made by two soldiers interviewed by an MoD researcher, Megan Paveley, and published in an academic journal in 2022. When asked which unit conducts the initiation ceremony, a defence minister toldparliament that data “was not captured as part of the research”.

British soldiers also face accusations of abandoning children they fathered with Kenyan women while deployed to East Africa, according to CNN.

An MoD spokesperson told Declassified: “All sexual activity which involves the abuse of power, including buying sex whether in the UK or abroad is prohibited.

“We are committed to preventing sexual exploitation in any form and investigate and hold to account any Service Personnel found to be involved in it.”

This article was originally published by our partners, Declassified UK.