Kenyan MPs have blocked ratification of the UK-Kenya Defence Cooperation Agreement, demanding written commitments on accountability before any deal moves forward.
The National Assembly insists local courts must retain primary jurisdiction over British soldiers who commit serious crimes on Kenyan soil, a red line that has left the five-year military pact in limbo despite British claims of progress on reforms.
“There is no final deal. We will not rubber-stamp any treaty that shields foreign soldiers from facing justice here,” Defence Committee Chairman Nelson Koech said this week.
The standoff centres on the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) in Nanyuki, where historical abuses and unresolved criminal cases have fuelled parliamentary resistance to immunity clauses
The 2012 murder of Agnes Wanjiru remains the most potent symbol of why MPs refuse to budge. The 21-year-old’s body was found in a septic tank at the BATUK base. Fourteen years later, her family still awaits justice.
A British soldier was arrested in 2022, a decade after the killing, but the case remains unresolved, tangled in jurisdictional disputes that lawmakers say prove why immunity provisions are unacceptable.
“We cannot allow another Agnes Wanjiru. Not on our watch,” one legislator said during recent committee hearings.
MPs are demanding written guarantees on three core issues including legal primacy for Kenyan courts in prosecuting serious crimes, transparent joint investigation protocols, and binding compensation mechanisms for affected communities.
The dispute escalated in July when Kenya withheld operational licenses, forcing Britain to cancel Exercise Haraka Storm, a major September combat drill, and relocate it elsewhere.
Days later, Prime CS Musalia Mudavadi intervened to issue temporary permits for immediate joint training, salvaging the diplomatic relationship.
But Mudavadi’s fix was a band-aid. The broader Defence Cooperation Agreement remains stuck in Parliament, with every future exercise requiring fresh executive approval, an unsustainable arrangement both sides acknowledge.
BATUK has operated in Nanyuki since 1964, providing high-altitude training terrain the UK military considers strategically vital. But lawmakers calculate that Britain needs Nanyuki more than Kenya needs British exercises.
