Kenyans to be reimbursed for UK-caused fire

• A community in northern Kenya has been given sixty days by a court in Kenya to file compensation claims.
• This is in relation to a fire that occurred in March of last year during a military training exercise carried out by the British army.
• The fire devastated thousands of acres of land.

A community in northern Kenya has been given sixty days by a court in Kenya to file compensation claims in relation to a fire that occurred in March of last year during a military training exercise carried out by the British army. The fire devastated thousands of acres of land.

Later on this week, according to a lawyer who represents the British Army Training Unit Kenya (Batuk), a liaison committee constituted by the governments of Kenya and the United Kingdom will issue guidelines for the compensation process.

Following the fire that destroyed an estimated 10,000 acres while the Batuk community was participating in a training exercise, the Lolldiaga community has become involved in a legal dispute with the Batuk community.

It is said that around the time of the fire, one British soldier sent the following message on Snapchat: “After being in Kenya for two months, we are down to our final eight days there. Been excellent, started a fire, and accidentally killed an elephant; I feel awful about both of these things, but when in Rome…”

Petitioners claim that the fire led to a catastrophic situation for the environment.

A lawyer named Kevin Kubai, who represents over one thousand people of the community, has acknowledged receiving the claim forms from those who were harmed, and he intends to begin submitting them beginning the next week.

The conservancy is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including the critically endangered Grevy’s zebra as well as elephants, buffalo, lions, hyenas, and jackals.

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