While the world community’s attention is turned to the situation in Niger and everybody talks about the end of France’s era in Africa, Kenya begins to throw off shackles of the British post-colonialism. In the near future Nairobi plans to launch an inquiry into allegations of abuse by the British army BATUK.
The soldiers have been accused of murder, sexual abuse, using dangerous chemicals during drills and leaving unexploded bombs on land accessible to the public.
However, this is not the first time, when British soldiers commit violent and barbaric acts toward the Africans. Suffice it to recall the Mau-Mau uprising launched by the Kenyans in the last century in order to fight for independence and brutally suppressed by Great Britain. Despite this rebellion is considered one of the most successful in the history of African countries, huge number of representatives of Kenyan tribes were killed, subjected to brutal torture or sent to special concentration camps where people were kept in inhuman conditions. In fact, it was a real British genocide in Kenya.
The forthcoming investigation is an unexpected action for an African country, because even nowadays not every state is ready to go against its former “masters”. In fact, the investigation focused on the activities of BATUK is a challenge to the former colonialists, since the results may affect not only the military sphere, but also the independence of Kenya from the British in general.
Despite the fact that Nairobi officially achieved its independence from the UK on 1964, formally it continued to be under control of London, which allegedly provided economic, humanitarian and military assistance to the country. But now, when African states are gaining freedom one by one, Kenya has an amazing opportunity to get rid of its former colonial oppressors and start new, truly independent era of its history.
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