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Nairobi, Feb 10, 2004 (East African Standard) – A major dispute has erupted between two families of the 600 Kenyan women who allege they were raped by British soldiers in Isiolo and Marsabit districts.
In Isiolo, a young man who has registered himself as the guardian of a child of mixed race with UK law firm of Leigh, Day and Company has been charged with abduction.
Idris Dahir Abdi, who has since married the minor, is registered with the law firm as the guardian who will receive compensation should the British Ministry of Defense pay the Kenyan women.
The grandmother of the girl, Khadija Ahmed, says in her affidavit that the girl, 13, who was a pupil at Wabera Primary School, was abducted by the accused and married last December.
In a letter to Isiolo Central OCS, the Chief Executive Officer of African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect, Ms Evaline Ogwang Omware, says efforts by the minor’s relatives to trace her have proved futile.
Omware says by marrying the girl, Idris had contravened the Children’s Act by denying her "a good future and adequate education". The girl’s alleged maternal uncle, Ismael Farah, says the girl used to live with her grandmother after her mother allegedly moved to Tanzania recently.
He wants the law firm’s senior partner, Martin Day, to replace Idris with the names of the girl’s relatives.
But Idris claims to be the girl’s cousin and wants the family to recognize him as her husband saying she is 17 years old.
The case, which is before Principal Magistrate, P M Ndungu, will be heard on March 12.
And in Marsabit, a German expatriate has accused his wife of presenting his two children as offsprings of mixed race born after the alleged rape by the soldiers.
The German, who resides at Korr trading centre, in Laisamis constituency, says his wife took the two boys he had legitimately fathered in order to get compensation.
Sources at Marsabit Police Station yesterday confirmed that the German had filed the case with the CID. The three children of mixed race from Isiolo and Marsabit Districts were among 30 others who were paraded in Nairobi streets last August when hundreds of Kenyan women protested the alleged rape by British soldiers at Archers Post, in Samburu District, and Dol Dol in Laikipia District.
The 600 women claimed the soldiers had raped them at the two training fields over the past 30 years.
They want the British government to educate the children and compensate the women for the ordeal.
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