Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

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Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by Fishnut » Tue Nov 09, 2021 9:03 pm

Gotta love how a piece that talks about the decade-long fight to get justice for a woman murdered and dumped in a septic tank by a British army officer gets turned into a discussion about migration. Why are you so easily distracted?

The Times seems to be the main paper covering this story so to avoid confusion I am putting a link to the relevant article at the end of each paragraph/quote. The links are to archive.md pages to avoid paywalls.

Agnes Wanjiru was 21 years old when she was murdered. She had a five month old baby daughter called Stacy, who turns 10 this month. Her body was found 2 months after she went missing in a septic tank near hotel where she was last seen. She had a 2cm stab wound to her lower abdomen and a blunt force injury to her chest. By the time her body had been found it was badly decomposed [Source].
The pathologist, Dr Obiero Okoth, found her injuries may not have been enough to have killed her. This meant she could have still been alive when she was stuffed into the septic tank. [Source]
Just think about that for a minute. She had been beaten and stabbed and her final moments were spent suffocating in sewage.

The identity of her killer, known as Soldier X, is an open secret in the Duke of Lancaster's regiment. One soldier, known as Soldier Y, says that the killer showed him her body on the night of her murder. Soldier Y claims he "told the proper people" but was dismissed as a liar. [Source].

She had been had been beaten and stabbed. Her final moments were spent suffocating in sewage. The identity of her killer is known and yet almost a decade after her murder her family are still unable to get justice.
Soldier Y claims that on returning to base, he immediately told senior officers what he had seen at the hotel.

“I went back to camp, grassed him up [to] everyone, all the lads, all the senior command that were there, everyone. I went to higher up, hierarchy, people that should have dealt with [it]. I told the proper people, [and] I got told to get to f***.” His claims, he says, were treated as “a standing joke”. [Source]
When asked why he thought no action had been taken against Soldier X, [another] source said: “In the army, there is a certain code. You keep your mouth shut. There are some unwritten rules. Stuff does get covered up, you protect your own.” [my emphasis] [Source]
One of those present that night remembered the night of Agnes’s death as a debauched evening of “non-stop” sex with local prostitutes in return for only a few pounds.

“It was all night, [soldiers] ferrying women back and forth to the rooms, which were like these huts,” the former infantryman said. “You could do whatever you wanted.”

But on his return to the UK, rumours had started. “There was a lot of talk among the soldiers that a soldier had killed her [Agnes]. “I heard there was a soldier boasting about killing a prostitute in Nanyuki.” [Source]
Despite this all these rumours,
...the British Army has held no inquiry, and none of the soldiers present have been questioned by their superiors. Even after an inquest in 2019 — in which a judge, Njeri Thuku, ruled that Wanjiru was “murdered by British soldiers” and ordered two criminal inquiries — no action was taken by the army. [Source]
A 2019 inquest into her death led to Judge Njeri Thuku concluding that,
Agnes was murdered by British soldiers... It may have been one or two. But what is certain was that it was British soldiers because they were dressed in their uniform. She went missing on March 31, 2012, and it is probable she died that night. [Source]
The Judge demanded two new police inquiries - one into Agnes' murder and the other into the cover-up of her death.
Thuku also made the unusual decision to name the British soldiers who had booked rooms in the hotel the night Wanjiru died, and whose names had been given to the police by the British Army Training Unit Kenya (Batuk).

“The details of her death are in the knowledge of one or two or all of the soldiers listed above,” she said. [Source]
The article notes that Soldiers X and Y are not amongst those named in the inquest document.
By the time the regiment was deployed to Afghanistan, the name of Soldier X is said to have become common knowledge. “You ask anyone who was in Afghanistan at the time: who was it that killed that prostitute in Kenya?” said Soldier Z. “They’d tell you the person who did it.” At one point, he heard a senior officer openly referring to the alleged killer as “the one that killed the prostitute in Kenya”. [Source]
The investigation into Agnes' murder began on 5 June 2012, just over 2 months after her disappearance. A maintenance worker who'd been told to clean the manholes and waste disposal pipes from the kitchen noticed a "foul smell" from the septic tank. The manhole cover was not padlocked and could have been accessed by anyone. The British soldiers quickly became suspects after detectives found "at least four witnesses" who had seen her leaving the hotel bar with a British soldier and go to his room. One also claimed they heard a "fierce row" between them. The detective, Corporal Ramadhan Jabali, went to the British army base but was told the soldiers who had been at the hotel on the evening of Agnes' murder had long since left Kenya [Source].

After Jabali met with the Royal Military Police he wrote to ask that the officers present at the hotel the night of Agnes' murder be questioned and DNA-tested but the "request appears to have gone missing" The MoD claim they never received the request. [Source].

It seems that no-one really wanted to touch her case once they realised British soldiers were involved,
Her body was found in June 2012, and the post-mortem examination carried out the same month. But the toxicology report was only ready a year later on April 5, 2013. The photographs of the crime scene were only developed on April 24, 2014, even though they were taken two years earlier. Chief Inspector Mugo, who took the photographs, told the inquest the photos were developed two years later because he was told “the photos were not urgent”.

“It took far too long,” said one Nanyuki police officer. “The suspects were in the UK which caused big holdups. But her file was passed from department to department, because it was too big a headache. British soldiers killing a local girl? This would have diplomatic considerations, also. The file was sent to the AG’s office, and was left there to rot.”
[Source]
It looks like the hotel tried to cover up the murder too. Despite blood being found in one of the rooms along with a smashed mirror, and reports of a woman screaming, none of the relevant staff who worked that night can be traced.

The conduct of British soldiers in Nanyuki is honestly disgusting.
The army had to reinstall fencing around the camp in Nanyuki after soldiers were caught thrusting their genitals through the wire fence for prostitutes to come and perform sexual acts. Local currency would be rolled up and shoved through the wire in return. [Source]
Two sources claimed that in 2009, the Royal Welsh Regiment went for a barbecue at the Sportsman’s Arms and an “entire platoon” of about 30 men were said to have had sex, many without condoms. Dozens were forced to take antiretroviral medicine for HIV by their commanding officer, it was claimed. The MoD said high standards of behaviour were expected from personnel “at all times”. [Source]
The army base is in a clearly impoverished part of Kenya and,
The steady supply of soldiers has created an industry for sex workers. While British soldiers can pay up to £30, although some will pay much less, local men will pay only £1 for sex.

“The British are very quick, so you can get another customer,” one Nanyuki sex worker said. “Local men take much longer, are harder to please and pay less.” [Source]
The military base is worth a lot of money to Kenya,
[In July 2021] Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, signed a deal with Kenya worth at least £10 million a year to Nanyuki and the surrounding area. The agreement will allow 3,000 British troops annually to train in the countryside nearby...

As part of the arrangement, the Kenyan Defence Forces can also take part in training exercises with the British Army. In the past two years, five joint exercises have been conducted, involving about 600 Kenyan troops and 4,500 British troops.

The army base, it is argued, provides a number of benefits to the wider community in Nanyuki. Royal Engineers carry out civil engineering projects such as building roads and bridges, while army medics provide healthcare to the civilian population.

Shops and businesses also depend on money spent by British soldiers on deployment. Roadside curio sellers offer hand-carved ornamental wooden badges and insignia for British troops. [Source]
That's a lot of reasons to ignore the murder of a poor prostitute. But, as the piece posted by Plodder points out,
The attempt to cover up the Wanjiru case by both the Kenyan and British governments is also a potent reminder that no British settlers, officials, troops, or police officers have ever been held to account for the brutal murder and torture of thousands, and the incarceration of up to 1.5 million people in concentration camps, during the 7-year State of Emergency declared in 1952 at the height of the Mau Mau rebellion against colonial rule. In fact, for more than half a century, the British government stole, destroyed and hid any documents that might, as reported by the Guardian, “‘embarrass [the British government] or other government’ or cause problems for any colonial policeman, civil servant or member of the armed forces”.
And let's not forget that one of the big reasons that Kenya is so impoverished and reliant on British business is because of colonialism. Its legacy led both directly and indirectly to the murder of Agnes Wanjiru and its legacy is why, almost a decade on, her family are still denied justice.

You can now go back to talking bollocks about migration.
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Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by plodder » Tue Nov 09, 2021 10:21 pm

Thanks Fishnut. I think the British (and English especially) are even more blind to their colonial legacy than, say, the Russians or Americans.

I also think we’re the masters of the cover up. Most people in the UK have never even heard of the Mau Mau, let alone know we were running concentration camps in the 1950s. But I do think it’s common knowledge in the rest of the world.

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Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by Woodchopper » Fri Nov 12, 2021 2:56 pm

Thread split from the original started here: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2903

The original thread linked to this article
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021 ... es-wanjiru

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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by Fishnut » Fri Nov 12, 2021 5:09 pm

The British Miliary are being sued in Kenya by 1,400 people for burning 12,000 acres (nearly 50 square kilometres) of land in a wildlife reserve at the foothills of Mount Kenya earlier this year.
Speaking on Kenyan TV during the fire, UK High Commissioner in Nairobi Jane Marriott said: “Accidents do happen. It’s not great and we’re really sorry and we really wish it hadn’t happened…We’re doing everything we can to mitigate those circumstances and put in place measures to ensure it never happens again.”

When asked by a journalist if there had been another fire three weeks earlier, Marriott said: “I haven’t seen any confirmed reports of another fire, but you know fires do happen. It’s very volatile conditions up there with the high winds – tinder box, combustible grass at the moment and the rains are late.”
An FOI request revealed there had been 5 previous fires between 24 February and 1 March of this year though none of them were investigated.
The army also admitted to causing another two fires in Kenya in 2019, but when asked for further details said “no documents are held” as they “did not meet the threshold for investigation.”

The MOD’s Defence Infrastructure Organisation said it was “only required to investigate significant fires when a loss of equipment, injury or significant environmental damage has occurred.”
The army uses Kenya to train soldiers for tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and has been at Lolldiaga for about 40 years. .
The MOD says it clears land after exercises, although it has previously paid millions in compensation to hundreds of Kenyans bereaved or maimed by abandoned UK explosives....

No environmental assessment test has been made for all these years, to ascertain the sustainability of the training activities in a water catchment area adjacent to a community of about 2,000 households and an approximate population of about 10,000 people including children.”
The BBC reports that Linus Murangiri, a man trying to help put out one of the fires, was "crushed to death by a vehicle". His death was only acknowledged in July, 4 months after the fire.
Although there is no suggestion the British army was directly involved in the death of Mr Murangiri, his widow has now told the BBC she wants a speedy investigation into how her husband died and the cause of the fire, and for the findings to be made public...

The Lolldaiga conservancy - about 49,000 acres of hilly bushland with a backdrop of the ice-capped Mount Kenya - is part of the Laikipia plateau, where hundreds of thousands of acres was seized by the British during the colonial era, leading to land disputes which continue to this day...

[Karen Gatwiri, Linus Murangiri's widow said her] husband's workmates told her that he died after he fell from a vehicle and was run over. Records at the local morgue indicate that he died instantly from head injuries suffered on impact. The conservancy has now admitted the death for the first time, but says it wasn't obliged to publicly announce it as it happened on private property.
As with the death of Agnes Wanjiru, the disrespect that British soldiers have towards Kenya and its people are all too visible,
One British soldier allegedly wrote in a Snapchat post: "Two months in Kenya later and we've only got eight days left. Been good, caused a fire, killed an elephant and feel terrible about it but hey-ho, when in Rome."
It's no surprise - this is clearly an attitude felt at all levels of the military, otherwise they wouldn't be arguing that Kenyan courts have no jurisdiction over what happens on Kenyan land,
Lawyers for the British army in June asked the environment court to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing the Kenyan courts lack jurisdiction over the matter.
If anyone says that our history of colonialism doesn't matter any more because it's all in the past then I'd like them to explain these stories.
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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by plodder » Fri Nov 12, 2021 5:41 pm

You can only imagine the sort of people who get posted to run army training camps in Kenya. Not fit for British consumption would be my best bet.

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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by plodder » Sat Nov 13, 2021 9:11 am

sheldrake wrote:
Fri Nov 12, 2021 10:51 pm
plodder wrote:
Fri Nov 12, 2021 5:41 pm
You can only imagine the sort of people who get posted to run army training camps in Kenya. Not fit for British consumption would be my best bet.
I don't think they'd be different from anybody else in the army. Crime rates, particularly prostitution, rape and drunken violence tend to shoot through the roof around the army bases of any nation. Army bases are full of young men away from community & family restraints who've been trained to be aggressive and physical.
The cream of the crop do not get sent to Kenya for very long (or the Falklands, or rocks in the Pacific)

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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by sheldrake » Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:33 am

Dbl post
Last edited by sheldrake on Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by Fishnut » Sat Nov 13, 2021 7:34 pm

FFS. This thread is about the actions of British soldiers operating in Kenya. If you want to talk about Roman soldiers or whatever the f.ck you think is going to downplay the horrendous behaviour on display by our miltary then go and make your own thread. I got my post separated into a separate thread because the horrendous murder of a woman by a soldier seemed to be of no interest to anyone in the original one. I won't have this thread perverted as well.

And just to spell it out to people,
a senior officer openly referring to the alleged killer as “the one that killed the prostitute in Kenya”. [Source]
They called Wayne Couzens "the rapist".

The people who are supposed to be protecting us see women as objects to use and abuse, not as people to protect. Until we address the culture that says that only some people (people like us - white and male) are worthy of consideration then nothing will ever change.
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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by sheldrake » Sat Nov 13, 2021 7:48 pm

Fishnut wrote:
Sat Nov 13, 2021 7:34 pm
FFS. This thread is about the actions of British soldiers operating in Kenya. If you want to talk about Roman soldiers or whatever the f.ck you think is going to downplay the horrendous behaviour on display by our miltary then go and make your own thread. I got my post separated into a separate thread because the horrendous murder of a woman by a soldier seemed to be of no interest to anyone in the original one. I won't have this thread perverted as well.

And just to spell it out to people,
a senior officer openly referring to the alleged killer as “the one that killed the prostitute in Kenya”. [Source]
They called Wayne Couzens "the rapist".

The people who are supposed to be protecting us see women as objects to use and abuse, not as people to protect. Until we address the culture that says that only some people (people like us - white and male) are worthy of consideration then nothing will ever change.
None of the peaceful, liberal, book reading men involved in this thread are the people you need to reach. We literally have no means available to us to prevent soldiers behaving like this.

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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by Fishnut » Sat Nov 13, 2021 7:49 pm

That doesn't mean you get to downplay their actions. And I'm done engaging with you.
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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by sheldrake » Sat Nov 13, 2021 7:58 pm

Fishnut wrote:
Sat Nov 13, 2021 7:49 pm
That doesn't mean you get to downplay their actions. And I'm done engaging with you.
Who's downplaying anything? I'm bemoaning the fact that this behaviour is widespread, not encouraging it. I think you have very unrealistic perceptions and expectations of this. Do you really believe this is a specially British problem? Why? And how do you know the British soldier(s) involved were all white?

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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by Fishnut » Sat Nov 13, 2021 8:31 pm

The family of Agnes Wanjiru is now suing the Ministry of Defence following the revelations that a soldier had confessed to her murder.
Wanjiru’s family have instructed the law firm Leigh Day to challenge the Ministry of Defence over what it says is a failure to investigate her alleged murder.

Partner Tessa Gregory told Agence-France Presse: “Our client desperately wants justice for Agnes but also wants answers as to what the British army knew and why it is that over the last nine years the Ministry of Defence appear to have done nothing to address the known allegations Agnes was brutally murdered at the hands of a British soldier.”
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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by bjn » Sat Nov 13, 2021 8:48 pm

I’ve got nothing to add to this thread apart from reporting my disgust at the act and my disgust at the actions of the British Military in ignoring it completely.

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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by Fishnut » Sun Nov 14, 2021 10:33 am

This piece is a good, if short, summary of the crimes that have been committed by British military personnel in Kenya.
The soldiers have in the past been accused of carelessly leaving unexploded ordinances in the unfenced fields of Samburu, killing and maiming herders and their livestock. They have also been accused of rape, murder, assault and environmental crimes.
It also references a new Bill that came into effect in April, the UK's Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Act 2021 which puts a statute of limitations of five years on cases where Armed Forces personnel are accused of committing crimes overseas.

The text of the Bill is interesting. It has some exceptions, though strangely murder does not seem to be among them. And it shows that civilians are seen as less worthy of justice than military given that these limitations do not "apply to alleged offences committed by Service personnel against other members of the armed forces, or against crown servants or Defence contractors."
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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by Fishnut » Sun Nov 14, 2021 11:35 am

plodder wrote:
Sun Nov 14, 2021 11:17 am
What if I modify my own behaviour to encourage other to modify their behaviour to collectively put pressure on the government and military to clean up their act? It’s called ‘being a citizen’.
There's that quote, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. It's very easy for good people to do nothing if they don't know what's being done in their name. How many people here were aware that British military trained in Kenya and were doing atrocious things both while on-duty (such as leaving unexploded ordnance for locals to find and injured/killed) and while off-duty (such as raping local women)? I certainly had no idea until I read Plodder's article.

Now we know we can try to do something about. Admittedly, there isn't a huge amount we can do as individuals but collectively we have power. We can write to our MPs and bring this to their attention and ask them to get the military to investigate the allegations that have been made. We can help with any crowd-funding of legal cases brought by those who have been harmed by the British military. We can join campaigns to reduce our military presence overseas and to provide proper funding to places like Kenya that isn't tied to them having to agree to let us blow up their land. We can spread the word about what is going on and why we think it should stop and maybe, if we get enough people to care, we can force changes to be made. But if we can't even get this forum of generally lefty liberals to care then there's no hope of that happening.
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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by sheldrake » Sun Nov 14, 2021 11:52 am

plodder wrote:
Sun Nov 14, 2021 11:17 am

What if I modify my own behaviour to encourage other to modify their behaviour to collectively put pressure on the government and military to clean up their act? It’s called ‘being a citizen’.
I don't think we're in a place where anybody thinks this is okay now, so it's not clear to me what the change you'd campaign for would look like. Murdering prostitutes is already very illegal, so what do you want? Soldiers to be kept away from prostitutes? Soldiers to become more peaceful, reflective people who don't do things like this?

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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by lpm » Sun Nov 14, 2021 12:04 pm

It's a bit naive to think the British state will work hard to stop this. It wants to use violent young men to exert power over other nations. Part of that involves training recruits to stab humans in the chest with a bayonet.

Deaths of civilians is a cost of doing business.

If anyone truly cared they'd look at Britain's nuclear arsenal first - intended to kill many tens of millions of civilians. A long way behind comes British drone strikes, which have had a tendency to kill a few civilians alongside each enemy combatant.

The stabbing of a prostitute in Kenya is never going to register with a powerful military that is fine with nuking half a continent.
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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by sheldrake » Sun Nov 14, 2021 12:10 pm

I don't think that's true either. The RMP have already started a murder enquiry. I doubt there will be generals who actually think it's okay for their soldiers to murder prostitutes, and this was reported by other soldiers initially. But your point about them being trained to stab people in the chest is an important one; I think people misjudge the leeway available to modify soldier behaviour. Being a soldier isn't just about fitness and technical knowledge about weapons, it involves psychological conditioning to operate outside of civilised norms and people are selected for a level of physicality and aggression in the first place.

The best safety measure I can think of would be unacceptable to wider society and probably draw extreme disapproval from most people here; have a brothel on the base, where the women can be monitored and protected easily. Sordid? yes. But you're just not going to stop gangs of the kind of young men who join the infantry looking for sex when they're off duty.

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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by lpm » Sun Nov 14, 2021 12:20 pm

Sure, they'll investigate this single instance. Have to because a spotlight is on it.

Individuals will be punished and shown the door. An enquiry will recommend changes to the system. But real change won't happen because change is against the interests of the machine.

The correct answer isn't, of course, the state sanctioning the exploitation of vulnerable women. It is to withdraw from the global arena. Turn our military into a British Defense Force, with very few personnel and top notch equipment.
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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by sheldrake » Sun Nov 14, 2021 12:24 pm

lpm wrote:
Sun Nov 14, 2021 12:20 pm
The correct answer isn't, of course, the state sanctioning the exploitation of vulnerable women. It is to withdraw from the global arena. Turn our military into a British Defense Force, with very few personnel and top notch equipment.
Very supportive of that, it would be much cheaper and more useful. But I expect it just means the kenyan women are getting raped by chinese soldiers a decade from now.

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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by JQH » Sun Nov 14, 2021 2:58 pm

sheldrake wrote:
Sun Nov 14, 2021 11:52 am
plodder wrote:
Sun Nov 14, 2021 11:17 am

What if I modify my own behaviour to encourage other to modify their behaviour to collectively put pressure on the government and military to clean up their act? It’s called ‘being a citizen’.
I don't think we're in a place where anybody thinks this is okay now, so it's not clear to me what the change you'd campaign for would look like. Murdering prostitutes is already very illegal, so what do you want? Soldiers to be kept away from prostitutes? Soldiers to become more peaceful, reflective people who don't do things like this?
How about soldiers who murder prostitutes to face trial for murder?
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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by sheldrake » Sun Nov 14, 2021 3:06 pm

JQH wrote:
Sun Nov 14, 2021 2:58 pm
sheldrake wrote:
Sun Nov 14, 2021 11:52 am
plodder wrote:
Sun Nov 14, 2021 11:17 am

What if I modify my own behaviour to encourage other to modify their behaviour to collectively put pressure on the government and military to clean up their act? It’s called ‘being a citizen’.
I don't think we're in a place where anybody thinks this is okay now, so it's not clear to me what the change you'd campaign for would look like. Murdering prostitutes is already very illegal, so what do you want? Soldiers to be kept away from prostitutes? Soldiers to become more peaceful, reflective people who don't do things like this?
How about soldiers who murder prostitutes to face trial for murder?
There’s already an RMP investigation on this murder. We prosecute soldiers for things going back to bl..dy Sunday in the UK

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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by Fishnut » Sun Nov 14, 2021 3:14 pm

sheldrake wrote:
Sun Nov 14, 2021 12:10 pm
I doubt there will be generals who actually think it's okay for their soldiers to murder prostitutes
Have you even read the articles or anything I've posted on this? The higher ups didn't care. From my very first post:
Soldier Y claims that on returning to base, he immediately told senior officers what he had seen at the hotel.

“I went back to camp, grassed him up [to] everyone, all the lads, all the senior command that were there, everyone. I went to higher up, hierarchy, people that should have dealt with [it]. I told the proper people, [and] I got told to get to f***.” His claims, he says, were treated as “a standing joke”. [Source] [my emphasis]
By the time the regiment was deployed to Afghanistan, the name of Soldier X is said to have become common knowledge. “You ask anyone who was in Afghanistan at the time: who was it that killed that prostitute in Kenya?” said Soldier Z. “They’d tell you the person who did it.” At one point, he heard a senior officer openly referring to the alleged killer as “the one that killed the prostitute in Kenya”. [my emphasis] [Source]
If you want to quibble and say that just because they ignored the fact one of their men murdered Agnes it doesn't mean they "think it's okay", their acknowledgement of what he did and their lack of action against the soldier means that even if they don't "think it's okay" then they have said to all the people who know about this that they don't care enough to do anything about it. Their inaction has condoned the behaviour, whether they mean it to or not. As the Chief of the Australian Army said in 2013, the standard you walk past is the standard you accept.
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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by sheldrake » Sun Nov 14, 2021 3:28 pm

Fishnut wrote:
Sun Nov 14, 2021 3:14 pm

Have you even read the articles or anything I've posted on this?
Yes. When the anonymous soldier talks about going 'straight to senior officers' on a small base in Kenya, he isn't likely talking about Generals. The same articles also point out that there's an RMP investigation open. I am not clear what additional action you are calling for?

You should also beware of taking anonymous witness statements passed through a journalistic filter as unabashed truth.

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Re: Murder by a British Soldier in Kenya

Post by Fishnut » Sun Nov 14, 2021 5:26 pm

The Kenyan police only reopened their investigation following the Sunday Times reporting that found a soldier had confessed and his identity was known to many within his unit. The British military have now announced that they will "cooperate very closely with the Kenyan authorities".

The military did not investigate the allegations at the time of Agnes' murder. Sky News says that they have sources confirming that "the UK government had been aware of the incident and the accusations." Yet it has taken the outrage following the Sunday Times investigation for anything to be done, either in the UK or in Kenya.

Shadow defence secretary John Healey has called for "an inquiry into any possible cover-up from commanding officers, military police or the MoD."

It is thanks to the reporters at the Sunday Times that the murder of Agnes is being talked about and investigated by authorities at last. It's a reminder of the importance of investigative reporters and proper journalism.

BTW, there's a crowdfunder raising money to support Agnes' daughter which has only a few days left to go if anyone has some spare change they'd like to donate.
it's okay to say "I don't know"

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