Revealed: UK quietly negotiated to extend military training deal
British Army Training in Kenya (Batuk) during an exercise in Laikipia County.
The United Kingdom quietly negotiated to have its troops continue training in Kenya indefinitely after its military treaty expired two years ago, the Saturday Nation has established.
After two years of being coy about how British soldiers continued to train in Kenya past the 2021 expiry date of the treaty, UK Minister for Armed Forces James Heappey has revealed that the extension was approved by Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Kenya, in 2015, signed a Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with the UK to allow its troops to train in Laikipia and Samburu counties under the British Army Training Unit (Batuk).
The treaty also had provisions for joint military training with the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF).
The deal saw the establishment of a permanent British military base in Nanyuki town. It was meant to run for five years with a renewal option upon expiry. Upon the expiry of the contract in 2021, another DCA was negotiated and signed by former Defence Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma and her UK counterpart Ben Wallace. It was then ratified by the UK parliament but has yet to be adopted by Kenya's National Assembly.
Essentially, the British troops had no legal backing allowing them to operate in Kenya beyond 2021. However, it has since emerged that the British High Commission in Nairobi negotiated a deal with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to have British soldiers continue training.
The British Army Training Unit Training in Kenya -BATUK train for war at Lolldaiga training area in Laikipia County on November 14, 2022.
During a sitting in the UK House of Commons, East Lothian MP Kenny MacAskill asked the Defence Ministry how much extension the military got after the expiry of the 2016 DCA. “…To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how long the temporary extension to the 2016 Defence Cooperation Agreement between the UK and Kenya will remain in place following the expiration of that agreement in October 2021.”
In a written response, Mr Heappey for the first time revealed details of the extension that was negotiated a month after the expiration of the 2016 treaty.
“Through an exchange of notes in September 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kenya and the British High Commission Nairobi agreed to extend the application of the existing Agreement beyond 6 October 2021, until both parties notify each other in writing of the coming into force of the new agreement, in accordance with the Parties’ respective laws.
"The Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) signed in 2015, therefore, is extant and will remain in place until the new DCA is ratified and formally brought into force,” Mr Heappey said.
This means the DCA/2016 will remain in force until another contract is implemented or until either party decides to pull out of the deal. Mr Heappey has previously declined to reveal details of how their troops have continued to operate in Kenya beyond the expiration of the deal, yet another one has not been entered.
National Assembly Committee for Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs chairperson Nelson Koech confirmed that Kenya entered into an agreement to indefinitely extend the DCA/2016.
“A provision in the previous agreement allows it to subsist until a new agreement is entered into unless either party expresses the intention to get out of the arrangement. That's the provision that is applying at the moment,” he told the Saturday Nation.
The British Army Training Unit Training in Kenya -BATUK at Lolldaiga training area in Laikipia County on November 14, 2022.
Specifics of the extension of such a contract are, however, vague as they are not detailed in the DCA/2016. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to our questions on the extension or the rules of engagement to be applied by the troops.
This comes at a time when the ratification of a new contract, DCA/2021, by Kenyan parliament has stalled. Two critical issues regarding the conduct of British soldiers while on deployment in Kenya stand in the way of the renewal of the contract.
The British Army Training Unit Training in Kenya -BATUK train for war at Lolldaiga training area in Laikipia County on November 14, 2022.
Laikipia leaders and residents want the murder of Agnes Wanjiru in 2012 and the fire at Lolldaiga Conservancy in 2021 to be resolved first before a new DCA can be ratified. The ratification has, however, stalled, with no indication of the stalemate being broken soon. As of last week, the National Assembly Committee for Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs had planned to hold meetings at Batuk’s Nyati Barracks in Nanyuki, but the mission was aborted at the last minute.
“On cancellation of the Batuk visit, the committee had other pressing engagements that took priority, hence the inability to travel to Nanyuki,” Mr Koech said.
A new date for the meetings has not been set.
