Kenya
Casualties and Victim Assistance
Casualties
Casualties Overview
|
All known casualties by end 2013 |
1,130 mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties (44 killed; 1,086 injured) |
|
Casualties in 2013 |
0 (2012: 1) |
|
2013 casualties by outcome |
0 injured (2012:1 killed) |
In 2013, in the Republic of Kenya, no mine/ERW casualties were identified.[1] In 2012, a British World War II-era bomb killed a six year-old boy.[2] In 2011, 29 new mine/ERW casualties were identified in Kenya, including 22 children.[3]
The Monitor has identified 1,130 mine/ERW casualties in Kenya between 1999 and the end of 2012 (44 people killed and 1,086 injured).[4] Casualty figures are likely incomplete because there is no systematic casualty data collection mechanism in Kenya. In 2002, the British Ministry of Defense paid compensation to 1,046 people reportedly injured by unexploded ordnance from training areas used by the British Army.[5]
Victim Assistance
The total number of survivors is unknown, but is at least 1,090 (1,046 reported through the British compensation claims process and 44 survivors identified by the Monitor in 2003–2013). Mine/ERW survivors receive the same services as other persons with disabilities.
Access to services for persons with disabilities remained limited.[6]
Kenya ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 19 May 2008.
[1] An incident occurred in the Dagahaley area within Dadaab refugee camp in December 2013 that was referred to as involving a landmine. The means of detonation was not indicated and the resulting casualties have not been included in the annual total. “Four police officers injured in landmine explosion,” Daily Nation, 30 December 2013; “Four police officers injured in Dadaab landmine explosion,” Standard Media, 30 December 2013.
[2] “Fishermen discover live bombs in Lake Victoria,” News24, 7 May 2012; and “Deaths and injuries caused by unexploded World War II bombs left by British soldiers is a menace around Lake Victoria,” Jaluo, 29 March 2012. Both reports mention additional casualties but provide insufficient details and so were not included. In addition, throughout 2012 casualties continued from suspected command-detonated devices targeting security forces’ vehicles at the border with Somalia. Since the Monitor only records victim-activated explosive casualties, these casualties have not been included in the annual total. Monitor media monitoring 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2012.
[3] Monitor media monitoring 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2011.
[4] ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2004: Toward a Mine-Free World (New York: Human Rights Watch, October 2004); ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2006: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada: July 2006); ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2008: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada: October 2008); ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2009: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada: October 2009).
[5] Telephone interview with Col. John Steed, British High Commission, 25 March 2009.
[6] United States Department of State, “2011 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Kenya,” Washington, DC, 24 June 2012.