Firing-range action against British army begins

Lawyers representing members of the Maasai and Samburu on Wednesday started proceedings at the High Court in England against the British army, claiming that explosives discarded at firing ranges in central Kenya had maimed and killed hundreds of people, many of them children. In the landmark case, 150 members of the two tribes were seeking almost £4m compensation for the alleged negligence of the UK Ministry of Defence on the Archer’s Post and Dol Dol firing ranges, the ‘Independent’ newspaper reported on Thursday. The British army had been using the two ranges for over 50 years, it said. Many of the plaintiffs - who are seeking, on average, £250,000 each - were relatives of people who had been killed or injured by unexploded ordnance left behind on the ranges, the report stated. The plaintiffs’ solicitor, Martyn Day, had suggested on Wednesday that the number of claimants could rise to 250, it added. The UK Ministry of Defence maintains that it has always been up to the Kenyan authorities to clear unexploded devices, although it has assisted in the operation, and that it was unaware that the Kenyans were failing to make the area safe until last year. However, Day said outside the court that it would be “remarkable” if the scale of alleged deaths and injuries had not come to the ministry’s attention. “After four months of investigations, all the evidence points towards the British army bearing the brunt of responsibility for this terrible saga,” the ‘Independent’ quoted Day as saying. Archer’s Post covered 1,500 square kilometres in an area where 20,000 Samburu pastoralists had their homes, and the plaintiffs claimed that there were four or five deaths in the area each year as a result of the unexploded shells, the report stated. The British base is just a few hundred yards from the clinic where many of the alleged victims are treated, according to the plaintiffs.