“Edward”, a nine-year-old Kenyan boy, has always known that his father worked for the British Army. The boy’s skin color, lighter than his peers, provoked years of bullying. Edward disappeared before his father [not his real name] was born, leaving his mother to live in extreme poverty, ostracized by some of his family.
Now the man, who worked as a contractor at a British army base in Kenya, and 19 others who served as soldiers there have been identified through DNA and legal process as the fathers of children born near the base. Judges at the UK’s highest family court have so far legally confirmed paternity in 12 cases.
The process provides answers to children who did not know, or in some cases were, who their fathers were – or who were led to believe they were dead. All are seeking answers about their heritage, and have faced financial hardship. Most of the 12 confirmed cases are now eligible to register for British citizenship. Those under 18 or in further education will be eligible for child support.
British lawyer James Netto, and lawyer Kelvin Kubai, who seeks clients in Kenya, say there are about 100 documented cases of babies born to British soldiers near a British army training unit in Kenya (Batuk). Netto believes there could be more.
James Netto (Uda) traveled to Kenya to investigate paternity cases [BBC]
Founded in 1964, Batuk, which more than 5,000 British workers pass through each year, has for decades caused significant controversy as it is located in the market town of Nanyuki, 185km (115 miles) north of Nairobi.
A two-year Kenyan parliamentary inquiry published last December accused British soldiers of operating within a “culture of impunity” at the base, resulting in sexual abuse, two counts of murder, rights violations, environmental destruction and the abandonment and neglect of local children.
The UK Ministry of Defense responded that it “deeply regrets the issues and challenges that have arisen in relation to the UK’s defense presence in Kenya… we continue to take action where possible to address them”.
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James Netto was first alerted to the issue of children searching for their father in Nanyuki in 2024. He traveled to Kenya “with a suitcase full of DNA kits” along with Denise Syndercombe Court, a leading professor of genetics.
They then cross-referenced the assembled DNA samples with genetic profiles available for viewing in commercial genealogy databases to find the absent British military fathers of clients aged three to 70.
“Nothing like this has ever happened before, where you are involved in DNA testing on such a scale”, says Netto. And he and his team have a large pool of genetic information to compare their samples with. As of last year, nearly 30 million profiles were available on Ancestry.com, the largest of the commercial DNA websites that Syndercombe Court joined and used as their main source.
Netto says they had no idea how many leads they would get and were surprised by the good results. “We’ve had completely distant family members, we’ve had relatively close family members, all the way up to the bullseye hit of fathers being named and identified.”
This success is a potential life changer for Edward and his mother Nasibo, as he will now be entitled to financial support from his father.
As many of Nasibo’s relatives ostracized her for being a single mother, Nasibo faced financial difficulties [BBC]
“I thought they were gentlemen,” Nassibo says of the British army. She believes that Edward’s father truly loves and cares for her. We see a letter the soldier’s mother wrote to Nasibo, before she became pregnant, thanking him for making her son happy. And while Nasibo was expecting her, she says she seemed happy. She insisted the baby be named after her brother if it was a boy, she says, and returned from a trip to the UK with an engagement ring.
But when Nasibo was four months pregnant, she said he told her he had to return to the UK for an emergency and cut off all contact.
Nasibo was forced to leave the family home by some of her relatives, she says, and her son was bullied at school because of his light skin.
“They nicknamed him ‘The British Colonist,'” she told us. Britain ruled Kenya from 1895 to 1963.
Netto was able to track down Edward’s father after the court ordered the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs to share the man’s name and address. The man has asked Netto not share his contact details with Nasibo or their son, but the lawyer is in the process of starting court proceedings to force him to pay child support.
Another Kenyan, 18-year-old Yvonne, knew less about her father than Edward did. She was said to have served in the British Army but they did not have her name, and she grew up believing she was dead. His mother died when he was a child, and Batuk soldiers reportedly told his grandparents that his father had died.
The legal project has revealed – through a match with the man’s mother’s cousin, whose DNA was uploaded to Ancestry.com – that his father is in fact alive and living in the UK.
After violating five court orders, he finally appeared on the day of his trial. He requested a DNA test to confirm that he was Yvonne’s father, the result of which, a week later, was the case.
He doesn’t want to have contact with Yvonne right now. But her mother’s brother said she was looking forward to meeting Yvonne.
Not all identified fathers are willing to be involved.
Phil, a former British soldier who was stationed in Nanyuki in 2004, says he has enjoyed getting to know his 20-year-old daughter Cathy. He had previously proposed to Cathy’s mother, Maggie, and spent a lot of time with his daughter during the first few months of her baby’s life. But when he went on another deployment, he said his phone was stolen and their contact details were lost.
It was easy for Maggie to tell Cathy that her father had died. But as she got older, Cathy discovered he was alive and tried to message him on Facebook, but he said he blocked her accounts, not recognizing them.
Kathy spent years trying to contact her father through Facebook [BBC]
He says he left the military at the time and was homeless for a while and struggling with mental health. “The transition to civilian life was not easy,” he says.
Cathy was also struggling at the time, culminating in an attempt to take her own life.
“Growing up, I felt like I needed a father figure because there were things my mom couldn’t understand because of race and all that. It made me feel really alone.
“There’s a part of you that you don’t know about. It’s a complete mystery to you.”
Having recently had his paternity confirmed in a UK court, Phil says he is delighted to have been found, describing it as a “very happy surprise”.
He says he’s been in touch with Kathy, and is already giving her and Maggie some financial support.
“I told Cathy…no matter what I do, I can never make up for the time I lost with her. But the best I can do is do it.”
Cathy is now hoping to go to the UK.
Netto says that, to his knowledge, Phil is the only one of his clients’ fathers who is sending money to their children.
Phil says he has struggled with his mental health since leaving the army [BBC]
We asked local Kenyan lawyer Kelvin Kubai, who has set up a charity called Connecting Roots Kenya to financially support the children of British soldiers, if he believes there should be a total ban on such relationships given the number of children born out of wedlock. He strongly disagreed.
“This [would] Be very racist in nature because you are mainly asking white soldiers to avoid black women [just] Because they can cause them problems. The only…possible solution… [is] Just to ensure that these men are held accountable while fathering children during the training period in Kenya.”
Netto and Kubai continue to work, they say, adding that more cases will be brought to the High Court in the next few months.
The Ministry of Defense told us: “Where there are no criminal allegations of unlawful activity against UK service personnel, and no specific concerns have been raised by local police, the UK MoD will not investigate. Some paternity claims may relate to consensual relationships, which is not against UK MoD policy.”
Brigadier Simon Ridgway, commanding officer of the British Army’s training group, said those affected by paternity issues should get involved with Kenya’s National Children’s Service. “They then engage with the UK and we provide whatever assistance we can in answering questions and dealing with those allegations.
A Kenyan parliamentary inquiry in December called on the Nairobi government to put in place new mechanisms to “hold Batuk soldiers accountable for child support to children born of consensual relationships, including DNA-testing and psychosocial support of children born to Batuk soldiers”.
