Positive signs for Maasai compensation claims

Community representatives have welcomed reports that the UK government could be willing to compensate the families of some 220 Maasai and Samburu killed or maimed on Kenyan firing ranges used by the British army.

"The community is excited about the outcome of the case so far, because they never imagined that they could be recognised. For us at OSILIGI, it is good news that the British government is finally taking responsibility for the suffering of the people, which was long overdue," Peter Kilesi, regional coordinator of the Organisation for the Survival of Il-Laikipiak Indigenous Maasai Group Initiatives (OSILIGI), a nongovernmental organisation which has been pursuing the case on behalf of the community, told IRIN on Friday.

British media reported on Thursday that the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) had agreed to let mediators assess damages claimed by the Maasai and Samburu pastoralists. Lawyers for the victims and their families were quoted as saying by the London Times the concession virtually guaranteed that a compensation package would be agreed.

According to Kilesi, however, the UK government has not yet made an offer for compensation. In addition, the plaintiffs had yet to agree on their terms for the settlement, which they would need to present at negotiations with British government scheduled for 17 to 19 July 2002.

"This is an independent claim by the community. The community will first meet with the lawyers. They are the ones who will first tell us what is happening, then the community will decide the terms of the claim, " Kilesi told IRIN.

"The next course of action will depend on what they [the British government] will want to negotiate with. If it is not satisfactory to us, then we will not agree, and the case will go back to court," he said.

Lawyers representing members of the Maasai and Samburu communities lodged claims totalling about 4 million pounds sterling (US $5.6 million) at the High Court in London in July 2001.

The British army has conducted live-fire weapons training in Kenya since 1945, when London still practised colonial rule over the country. The Archer's Post and Dol Dol firing ranges, which the British army continues to use, are in areas of central Kenya where many Maasai and Samburu pastoralists live and graze their sheep and cattle. The plaintiffs claim there are four or five deaths per year in the Archer's Post area, where 20,000 Samburu pastoralists have their homes.

According to estimates by OSILIGI, about 200 people had been killed since the exercises began, and many more injured, by exploding mortar shells, and other ammunition left behind after the soldiers depart.