After military training: UK to pay millions in compensation over massive fires
Photo: UK to pay millions in compensation due to massive fires (Getty Images)
The UK government has agreed to compensate thousands of Kenyans affected by a fire that broke out during UK military exercises four years ago, BBC reports.
The out-of-court settlement follows a lengthy legal battle in which 7,723 claimants said they lost property and suffered health issues as a result of the 2021 fire in Kenya’s Rift Valley.
The UK government has not confirmed the payout amount, but a lawyer in the case told the BBC it totals £2.9 million.
According to lawyers representing the Kenyan side, the alternative would have been nearly seven more years of litigation, requiring a case-by-case review that would have been difficult since much of the evidence had been lost.
At the same time, many Kenyans lacked medical records to support their claims of health damage caused by inhaling smoke from the Lolldaiga fire.
Background
In 2022, the UK Ministry of Defence said the fire was likely sparked by a cooking stove that was overturned during the exercises in the conservancy. Around 2,800 hectares of private land were damaged.
The lawsuit alleged that smoke harmed the environment in nearby villages and that property was destroyed as wild animals fled the fire.
The UK government helped the conservancy restore the burned area, and military training still continues there.
Lolldaiga conservancy
The Lolldaiga conservancy is about thousands of hectares of hilly bushland on the Laikipia plateau, some of which were seized by the British during the colonial era, sparking land disputes that persist to this day.
It lies just 70 km from the Lewa conservancy, where the Prince of Wales proposed to Kate Middleton in November 2010.
A few kilometers south of the fire site are the recently renovated Nyati Barracks, a £70 million facility that is part of the British Army Training Unit Kenya (Batuk). Each year, thousands of UK troops take part in large-scale exercises there.
