The UK government has agreed to pay compensation to thousands of Kenyans affected by a fire caused by a British military training exercise four years ago.
The out-of-court settlement follows a protracted legal battle in which 7,723 claimants stated they had lost property and suffered health complications due to the 2021 fire in the Lolldaiga conservancy in Kenya’s Rift Valley.
A spokesperson from the British High Commission in Nairobi said the fire was “extremely regrettable” and that the UK had devoted “considerable time, effort and resource” to resolve claims.
The British government has not disclosed the total amount paid, but the solicitor in the case said it was £2.9 million.
Kevin Kubai described it as the “best possible outcome” despite complaints from his clients that the sums received were far too small to compensate for their losses.
He said the alternative “would have been to continue litigation for another period of nearly seven years to be able to prove these cases on a case-by-case analysis”, which would be challenging as much of the evidence had been lost over the four years.
Mr Kubai acknowledged that his clients lacked medical records to support their claims of health damage due to smoke inhalation from the Lolldaiga fire, and that they were also exposed to smoke from using firewood for cooking.
The UK Ministry of Defence stated in 2022 that the fire had likely been caused by a camp stove being knocked over during the training exercise in the conservancy. It found that approximately 7,000 acres (2,800 hectares) of private land were damaged, though no community land was directly affected.
The legal action argued that there had been environmental damage in surrounding communities due to the smoke, and destruction of property caused by stampeding wild animals.
The British government has supported the conservancy with restoration efforts in the burnt area, and military exercises continue to be held there.
The Lolldaiga conservancy – around 49,000 acres of hilly bushland with a backdrop of the ice-capped Mount Kenya – is part of the Laikipia plateau, where hundreds of thousands of acres were seized by the British during the colonial era, leading to ongoing land disputes.
A few kilometres to the south are the newly refurbished Nyati Barracks, a £70 million facility that forms part of the British Army Training Unit Kenya (Batuk).
It hosts thousands of British troops annually for large-scale exercises in locations such as Lolldaiga, which offers ideal conditions for harsh environment training.