Sunday 08, June 2025 {HMC} A British soldier stationed at the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) in Nanyuki has been apprehended in connection with an alleged rape incident near the military camp.

The incident reportedly occurred last month after a group of British soldiers visited a bar in Nanyuki. One of the soldiers is accused of sexually assaulting a Kenyan woman following the outing.

The nabbing comes amid growing scrutiny over unresolved cases involving British soldiers accused of sexual violence against Kenyan women, with calls for greater accountability and justice intensifying.

Police have since questioned the suspect, and investigations are ongoing. The UK Ministry of Defence has taken over the matter.

A spokesperson for the Ministry confirmed the arrest, stating, “We can confirm the apprehension of a service person in Kenya.”

“Unacceptable and criminal behaviour has absolutely no place in our Armed Forces. Any report of a serious crime involving service personnel is investigated independently from their chain of command,” the spokesperson added.

They declined to give further details, citing the ongoing investigation by the Defence Serious Crime Unit.

The incident comes at a time when the country is yet to know the fate of the investigations into the execution of a Kenyan athlete, Agnes Wanjiru, allegedly by a British soldier.

The 2012 murder of Wanjiru in Nanyuki remains one of the most disturbing incidents linked to British soldiers stationed in Kenya.

Wanjiru, a 21-year-old Kenyan woman, was last seen entering the Lion’s Court Hotel with British soldiers from the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment. Her body was discovered two months later, dumped in a septic tank at the hotel.

The case resurfaced years later, drawing widespread media attention in the UK and Kenya after a leak exposed a WhatsApp group chat involving soldiers from the same regiment.

The leaked messages revealed some soldiers mocking Wanjiru’s death using memes referencing murder, hotels, and septic tanks—fuelling public outrage and renewed demands for justice.

Despite the gravity of the allegations and the public outcry, no soldier has been prosecuted over Wanjiru’s death.

The case continues to cast a long shadow over the British Army’s operations in Kenya and has intensified scrutiny of the conduct and accountability of foreign troops operating in the country.

The British Army currently has an agreement with the African nation to allow up to six infantry battalions per year — around 6,000 soldiers — to conduct exercises in the remote Kenyan countryside.

by Frankline Oduor

Sunday 08, June 2025 {HMC} The Kenyan government has told its tea factories to stop working with the Rainforest Alliance because it says the costs involved in securing the ethical label don’t add up for farmers.

The non-profit organisation is one of the world’s most recognisable certification schemes with its green frog seal on food packaging a sign consumers “can feel confident that these products support a better world”.

However the world’s third largest tea producer has ordered tea factories to suspend certification work because the cost is adding to the financial strain on struggling smallholders.

A recent Fairtrade Foundation poll found only one in five tea workers and farmers in Kenya are earning enough each month to support their families with essentials.

In a memo issued after an industry summit, the agriculture principal secretary, Paul Ronoh, said the “burden of implementation” of the Rainforest Alliance scheme was vested on tea factories then “cascaded to the tea farmers and growers”.

This cost “ordinarily should be met by the customers”, Ronoh said.

Rainforest Alliance is a global non-profit organisation that works to promote sustainable agriculture, forestry and responsible business practices.

The green frog seal appears on nearly 240 brands and is almost ubiquitous in UK supermarket tea ranges with big names including Tetley, PG Tips and Yorkshire Tea among those signed up. About half the tea consumed in the UK comes from Kenya.

The widespread demand for ethical certification is linked to the reputational risk of sourcing from tea-producing regions with a long list of problems. These include low wages, unsafe working conditions, gender inequality and environmentally unsustainable practices.

In addition, countries such as India and Kenya are grappling with climate crisis-related weather changes.

However critics complain that while buyers for western markets only want to buy certified tea they rarely offer to pay a premium for it.

While UK consumers are happy to splurge on coffee, the same is not true of tea. The average price of a teabag is “just 2 or 3p” despite the fact that the cost to grow and pick tea is increasing, according to a recent Fairtrade Foundation report on the subject.

Although Rainforest Alliance facilitates certification, it does not set the fees charged by external auditors who evaluate whether growers meet its “sustainable agriculture standard”.

The cost of certification depends on factors such as farm size, with growers often grouping together. For a smallholder-managed tea factory the annual cost is estimated to be about $3,000. This could come down however as a streamlined process that cuts the preparation work involved in an audit is being introduced this year.

Ronoh said that as the Rainforest Alliance logo “had not demonstrated solid impact commensurate to the costs of implementation, the meeting resolved to suspend the scheme with immediate effect”.

Tea is a major cash crop for Kenya and the decision comes as the country grapples with the knock-on effect of a moribund tea price on the millions of people who rely on it for their livelihood.

The Rainforest Alliance says it is engaging with the State Department of Agriculture in Kenya to “gain clarity and to work towards a joint resolution quickly”.

It has contacted certificate-holders to assure them that the endorsement remains valid until the expiration date, meaning “farmers are able to sell their tea as certified”.

A spokesperson said: “We remain committed to supporting in Kenya to the fullest extent possible, and our tea brands and companies have communicated that they remain fully committed to continuing to purchase Rainforest Alliance certified tea.”

The Kenyan government is said to be considering putting in place a localised certification model. It would likely have similar sustainability goals but lower compliance costs and less administrative complexity.

A spokesperson for the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), an NGO focused on tackling problems in the tea sector, said it hoped the Kenyan suspension would be “short-lived and that a solution to this current impasse will be found”.

Certification is a “critical tool to allow all stakeholders in the tea supply chain to ensure that the workers, farmers and communities who rely on tea for their livelihoods are being treated fairly”, the ETP added.

SOURCE 

Sunday 8 May 2025 {HMC}  Liberia’s former speaker of parliament has been charged with arson over a fire which destroyed the nation’s House of Representatives, local police have said.

The huge blaze broke out last December, a day after plans to remove Jonathan Fonati Koffa from his role as speaker sparked protests in the capital, Monrovia.

Koffa had been locked in a stand-off with his political opponents, with dozens of lawmakers voting for his impeachment in October over accusations of poor governance, corruption and conflicts of interest.

He has previously denied any connection to the fire breaking out.

Police said on Friday that there were “credible links” to suggest Koffa was “strategically involved” in the incident. Five other lawmakers have also been detained in connection with the case.

Police chief Gregory Colman said Koffa had been charged with a string of offences including arson, criminal mischief, endangering other people, and attempted murder.

Colman said Koffa had used his office and staff “to co-ordinate sabotage efforts from as early as November 2023”, according to news agency AFP.

Koffa and several other lawmakers were summoned to the Liberian National Police headquarters on Friday as “persons of interest” in the case, local media reports.

The former speaker and three sitting members of the House of Representatives were then remanded to Monrovia Central Prison on Saturday, newspaper FrontPage Africa reported.

The blaze on 18 December 2024 destroyed the entire joint chambers of the West African nation’s legislature. No one was inside the building at the time.

The day before had seen tense protests over the plans to remove Koffa, with demonstrators including an aide to former President George Weah arrested.

Several individuals, including Koffa and Representative Frank Saah Foko, were brought in for questioning by police.

Foko, a prominent figure in the House of Representatives, allegedly uploaded a video to Facebook in which he said: “If they want us to burn the chambers, we will burn it.”

A team of independent US investigators brought in to assist the investigation concluded that the fire was set deliberately.

Liberia’s House of Representatives has been beset by a long-running power struggle.

Although the bid to impeach Koffa fell short of the two-thirds majority required, the group of 47 lawmakers who had voted for the move unilaterally appointed their own speaker.

Last month, Koffa resigned as speaker after months of political deadlock.

BBC SOURCE