Ex-British soldiers among those who fathered Kenyan children while at Army base, court rules

A number of men who were stationed at or connected with a British Army base in Kenya have been declared the fathers of Kenyan children by the High Court.

The children, aged from two to their mid-50s, were born near BATUK (British Army Training Unit Kenya) where the only non-black people are British Army personnel and civilians who work there.

Lawyers for 11 children had asked the court to order information be given to the government to help identify their fathers.

Ten of the men were located and seven accepted they were father to one of the children.

Judge Sir Andrew McFarlane has now made "declaration of parentage" orders in six of the cases, with the same order set to follow in the seventh case.

Lawyer for the children, Rob George KC, told the court not all the men were white and some were dual citizens of the UK and another country.

DNA testing confirmed the fathers were not Kenyan, and Mr George added: "It is likely that they were British Army personnel based at BATUK, or possibly civilians connected with BATUK, at the time of the applicants' conception."

In one case, a teenager who grew up thinking she was an orphan, after her mother died when she was a year old, discovered her father might be in the UK.

Testing showed 31% of her DNA was related to England and northwest Europe, with 8% Welsh and 6% Irish.

A relative was tracked down in England and told investigators she had a family member who served with the Army in Kenya and was still alive.

Mr George told the court the girl was "missing a fundamental part of her heritage and her identity" as she never had the ability to find anything out about her father.

He said many of the children had also suffered harassment, bullying and discrimination because they are mixed race.

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A solicitor for the group, James Netto, told the hearing in July they "spoke of having a real loss in their lives and a real question mark over their own identity as a result of not truly knowing their fathers".

Work is ongoing to confirm the identity of the fathers of four of the original 11 children.

Mr George also told the court four new cases - who he said were "mostly mixed-race" children - had been identified and "many more may follow".

Judge Sir Andrew McFarlane told the government to hand over information about the assumed fathers or relatives in the new cases and scheduled another hearing for December.

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