Kenya\u2019s military privately rebuked their British counterparts over \u201clax\u201d handling of ammunition years before it emerged that hundreds of civilians had been harmed by unexploded ordnance from UK army exercises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As early as 1985, a Kenyan officer complained that \u201cthe British army is lax in their handling of ammunition and explosives\u201d, according to a military report found by Declassified UK<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The unnamed officer registered his concern after a mechanic was blown up by British ordnance in Nanyuki, the garrison town 90 miles north of Nairobi where UK troops have a training camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The victim, 27-year-old Jaffer Mohamed, had a wife and four children. His eldest, Ali, is still traumatised from losing his dad at age nine. \u201cWhen I see the British army in Nanyuki, I see my father dying,\u201d he told Declassified.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Jaffer\u2019s death was far from an isolated incident, it would take another two decades for the British military to publicly admit that more than a thousand Kenyans had been harmed by its unexploded ordnance (UXO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n These hazards are now being investigated by MPs as part of an inquiry into abuses by the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK).<\/p>\n\n\n\n