KENYA: One area of Kenya has been transformed following a landmark compensation payment by the British army, writes Declan Walsh
A bumpy track cuts through the rugged bush of northern Kenya, leading to the village of "millionaires". Four months ago the British army, which trains nearby, handed out €7 million in compensation for decades of accidental injury and death caused by their military exercises. Now the herders are spending their newfound cash with zeal.
Last Wednesday Mr Kipise Louroilkeek, an ageing Masai and one of the new tycoons, grinned broadly as technicians fitted him for a new prosthetic arm. His lost it back in 1966, he said, when, as a boy, he picked up a curious metal object. It turned out to be a bomb, and the explosion ripped out his arm and one eye.
Last November, he got 19 million shillings, or about €240,000. Now he has a large herd of cattle, a pile of money in the bank and children in school.
A green Toyota pick-up was waiting for him in the yard outside. "I can't wait to get this thing fitted so I can start driving," he said with a smile.
The Dol Dol area has been transformed by the landmark compensation payout. Once empty roads are lined with four-wheel-drive trucks. Solar panels have appeared atop mud huts, with new televisions inside.
Sheep prices have soared. One man who lost his testicles in an explosion has taken a second wife.
Not everyone has spent wisely. Ms Mekison Saikong, a mother of six, had to seek a court injunction after her husband, Jeremiah, poured most of his €16,500 down his throat. "I'm very unhappy, I really regret all this," she said. "He disappeared on drinking sprees with his friends for weeks on end. The children got nothing." Sitting mournfully beside her, Jeremiah could only agree that he had wasted the money. A judge had handed the last €4,000 to Mekison and, if she would hand it back, Jeremiah pleaded, he would spend it wisely. "No," she said firmly. "I'm keeping it for the children's education."
The pastoralist payout has sparked a flood of litigation against the British army in Kenya, where about 3,000 troops conduct military exercises every year. In the first case 233 herders were awarded; now another 3,500 claim they are entitled to compensation. In a separate suit under preparation, local women allege British soldiers raped them. At the centre of the legal onslaught is Mr Martyn Day. For many Kenyans, he is to litigation what the Flying Doctors were to medicine.
"It's unbelievable that our army has been behaving in this fashion," he said after flying into Dol Dol last Wednesday. "Here we have a beautiful area full of peace-loving people - and our soldiers are killing, injuring and raping them. At times it makes me ashamed to be British."
But the second round of compensation - currently being prepared in co-operation with the British army - has produced a wave of bogus claimants.
On Wednesday hundreds of Masai crowded outside a screening centre, hoping their case would be heard. Some came with polio, others with cooking fire injuries, others with almost nothing at all. One by one, they were rejected..
"Only about 10 per cent get through," admitted Mr Day.
More serious rape allegations surfacing now date back over two decades. As tears rolled down her cheeks, Ms Elizabeth Rikanna, a 41-year-old teacher, described the day in 1984 when a pair of British soldiers destroyed her life.
She had gone to fetch water at the well when three armed soldiers came along. "One of them stripped naked. He raped me first, then the other one," she said. "The third one did nothing. He held the guns." Evidence collected by the lawyers suggests the British army was aware of the complaints as early as 1983. In a meeting between local leaders and British officers, an army captain said he was "very much sympathetic" to rape victims and "pledged to take serious action".
However there is little evidence the army did take steps, as further complaints were recorded in following years.
But the rape cases will be hard to prove and may be marred by bogus claims.
On Wednesday Elizabeth squeezed into a compound with 150 other women, ranging from breast-feeding mothers to toothless grannies. But when interviewed, some women seemed unsure of the details of their stories. "Clearly we accept some of these may be bullshit cases," said Mr Day. "Our job is to filter out the good from the bad."