The United Kingdom agrees to pay the Kenyans affected by Lolldaiga Fire

The British government has agreed to pay compensation to thousands of Kenyans who were affected by a fire caused by a British military training exercise four years ago.

The regulation outside the field follows a long legal battle during which 7,723 applicants said they had lost goods and undergoing health complications due to the 2021 fire in the conservancy of Lolldaiga in the Kenya valley.

A spokesman for the British High Commissioner of Nairobi said that the fire was “extremely regrettable” and that the United Kingdom had devoted “time, effort and considerable resources” to resolve complaints.

The British government has not confirmed how paid for, but the lawyer in the case told the BBC that he was 2.9 million pounds sterling.

Kevin Kubai described him as “best possible result” despite the complaints of his customers that the sums they received were far too small to compensate for their losses.

He said the alternative “would have been to continue disputes for another period of almost seven years to be able to prove these cases on one analysis on a case -by -case basis”, which would be difficult because a large part of the evidence had been lost after four years.

Mr. Kubai acknowledged that his customers did not have medical records supporting their allegations of damage caused by health due to the inhalation of smoke from the Lolldaiga fire and that they were also exposed to smoke because they used firewood for cooking.

The British Defense Ministry said in 2022 that the fire was probably caused by a overturned Cototle during the training exercise in the Conservancy. He found that around 7,000 acres of private land was damaged, but no community land was directly affected.

Legal action argued that there had been environmental damage in the surrounding communities due to smoke and the destruction of goods due to stamped wild animals.

The British government has helped the Conservancy to restore the burned area and military exercises still take place.

The LOLLDAIGA Conservancy – About 49,000 acres of mountainous bush with a backdrop from Mont Kenya in ice – is part of the Laikipia plateau, where hundreds of thousands of acres were seized by the British during the colonial era, leading to terrestrial litigation which continues to this day.

It is only 70 km (45 miles) from Lewa Conservancy, where the Prince of Wales offered Kate Middleton in November 2010.

A few kilometers to the south are the newly renovated Nyati barracks, an installation of 70 million pounds sterling which is part of the British army training unit Kenya (Bauk).

It welcomes thousands of British troops each year for massive exercises in places such as Lolldaiga, which offers ideal conditions for severe environment.

Batuk contributes to tens of millions of pounds to the Kenyan economy each year.

But over the years, the controversy surrounding the behavior of certain soldiers has drawn the attention of the media, including allegations of fatal crimes, murder and sexual exploitation of Kenyan women.