JUSTICE FOR KENYAN WOMEN
PROTESTING 30 YEARS OF RAPE BY BRITISH MILITARY

International Women’s Day, Tuesday 8 March, Masai and Samburu women
gather in Nairobi for a mass demonstration at the British High Commission.


LONDON ACTION IN SUPPORT OF WOMEN IN KENYA

1-3pm Picket the Kenya High Commission, 45 Portland Place London W1
Nearest tube Oxford Circus
Organised by the African Liberation Support Campaign Network (ALISC Network),
Black Women's Rape Action Project, Women Against Rape
& All African Women's Revolutionary Union.


A Global Women’s Strike event, grassroots women’s actions in over 60 countries .

Hundreds of Kenyan women report being raped by British soldiers on military exercises in central Kenya between 1965 and 2001. Survivors describe being hunted down and gang raped. Many reported the atrocities to Kenyan police and local officials, and they in turn reported it to the British authorities. Yet nothing was done until the women themselves took legal action. Years after the brutal attacks, women continue to be traumatised, suffering from nightmares, panic attacks and other ill health. Many women now have children as a result of the rape, and they with their children have often been ostracised by their communities and suffered other discrimination.

The rape of the Samburu and Masai women is a continuation of British colonial policy which perpetrated genocide against the Mau Mau independence movement. As well as men who were held in camps, entire villages of women and children were also detained. British troops tortured, raped, mutilated, starved and executed hundreds of thousands, reminiscent of Nazi Germany. Over 300,000 deaths have been erased from history. Now this same British
Army has been exposed as torturing and raping Iraqis alongside their US
allies in Iraq.

An “in house” investigation by the Royal Military Police (RMP) claimed that “all police records examined to date are forgeries” and that of the 800 allegations of rape made, “... no more than 30 are credible.” Even if this were true, finding 30 victims of horrendous crimes of violence and abuse means that serial rapists and attackers were operating within the military.  Instead of condemnation, a smear campaign, promoted by some of the British media, presented the women as “gold diggers”. The Times of 27 September 2003 reported, “... the British Government was the target of a huge attempted fraud.”

The RMP investigation involved transporting women to where the rapes took place, then leaving the women there! According to the women, “It was like being raped all over again.”

The government of Kenya has as usual neglected the interests of its own women citizens. It would not stand up against the British government and for the women, whose enormous caring and agricultural work keeps most people in Kenya alive. Instead, it permitted the rapes to continue even after they were brought to the attention of local authorities. 

The Kenyan women’s struggle is part of an international women’s movement against rape. In the UK rape victims face hostility and character assassination, and even the government has admitted that less than 6% of reported rapes result in conviction. 

Contact: African Liberation Support Campaign Network 07984 405 307
nkexplo@yahoo.co.uk kenyawomen@yahoo.com

Black Women’s Rape Action Project bwrap@dircon.co.uk

Women Against Rape war@womenagainstrape.net
www.womenagainstrape.net

All African Women’s Revolutionary Union

Global Women’s Strike 0207 482 2496 womenstrike8@server101.com
www.globalwomenstrike.net

30 years of British army rape in Kenya

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