Key
developments since May 2000: Kenya ratified the Mine Ban Treaty on 23
January 2001. UXO victims in Kenya are currently seeking legal redress from the
British government, which undertakes joint military training exercises in
northern Kenya. British Royal Engineers started clearing munitions early April
2001.
Kenya signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 5 December 1997
and ratified it on 23 January
2001.[1] The treaty enters into
force for Kenya on 1 July 2001. Kenya’s first Mine Ban Treaty Article 7
transparency report will be due on 28 December 2001. The ratification followed
a promise by the Minister of State in charge of Defense, Julius Sunkuli, during
the launch of Landmine Monitor Report 2000 in
Nairobi.[2] The process for
developing implementing legislation of the Mine Ban Treaty has not yet begun.
Kenya attended the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty
in September 2000 and also participated in the intersessional Standing Committee
meetings in December 2000 and May 2001. Kenya attended both the Horn of
Africa/Gulf of Eden Conference on Landmines held in Djibouti in November 2000
and the Bamako, Mali all-Africa Seminar on Universalisation and Implementation
of the Mine Ban Treaty in Africa in February 2001. It voted in favor of the
November 2000 UN General Assembly resolution supporting the Mine Ban Treaty.
Kenya is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and did not
participate in the Second Annual Conference of States Parties to its Amended
Protocol II in December 2000.
Landmine and UXO Problem and Landmine Incidents
Kenya has a historic but limited problem with
unexploded ordnance (UXO) dating back to World War I and World War II, and also
from the Mau Mau insurgency in the years leading to independence. More recently,
Army maneuvers involving the Kenyan, US, and UK armed forces, especially in the
pastoral north of the country, appear to have
led to an increase in the UXO
problem in training ranges. Dozens of Kenyans, most of them children, injured
by explosives left behind by the British army while on military training
exercises in Kenya are currently seeking legal redress from the British
government.[3] In April 2001, the
British Army dispatched Royal Engineering ballistics troops to the
Archer’s Post and Isiolo training ranges to start clearing explosives
abandoned during the drills.[4]
The British Ministry of Defense has pledged to pursue the evidence of such
munitions and said, “If we are shown to be culpable, clearly we will have
to respond to
that.”[5]
In April 2001,
some 10,000 Somali refugees fled to Kenya and claimed that they encountered
mines on their way to Moyale,
Kenya.[6]Moyale is a
border district between Somalia to the east and Ethiopia to the north. It is
unclear whether the refugees encountered the mines on Kenyan side of the border.
But it is not the first such incident.
On 23 March 2000, it was reported that
14 were killed and 5 injured in two mine blasts in the same area. Two reports
said all casualties were from Kenya; however, the Eastern Provincial
Commissioner, who is also chairperson of the Eastern Provincial Security
Committee, refuted that any Kenyans were involved. She was “waiting for
any relevant details from the Ethiopian government which was handling the
matter.”[7]
Kenya has
also received refugees, some of whom are mine victims, from other bordering
countries currently or recently engaged in conflict (Somalia, Sudan and Uganda).
Care is available in the
country.[8]
Mine Action
Kenyan Armed Forces are currently participating in
the UN peacekeeping effort in Eritrea, where mines have been used extensively.
At the Djibouti Landmines Conference in November 2000, Brigadier General
Emiliano Tonui, Chief of Operations of the Department of Defence, appealed for
training of Kenya military personnel (particularly those working in Eritrea) in
mine clearance; he also appealed for resources for the acquisition of demining
equipment.[9] The military does
not conduct mine awareness education.
[1] The Minister of Foreign
Affairs Dr. Bonaya Godana signed the ratification document on 8 January
2001.
[2] Statement by Julius
Sunkuli, Minister of State in charge of Defense, during the launch of
Landmine Monitor Report 2000, Nairobi, 7 September 2000. He welcomed
Landmine Monitor Report 2000 as “a commendable
effort.”
[3]
“Kenyans to get UK aid in suit,” Daily Nation (newspaper),
Nairobi, 27 April 2001, p. 17. The suit is being processed by counsel in London
following a landmark decision in the House of Lords allowing foreign
compensation claims against a British defendant to be pursued in a British
court. A British law firm, Leigh Day and Company is pressing the case for the
victims. It has so far recorded 90 deaths and 110 cases of maiming, among them
50 children, in the compensation
case.
[4] “Troops
clearing munitions,” Daily Nation, 25April 2001, p. 16.
[5]Daily Nation, 27
April 2001, quoting a ministry of Defence
spokesman.
[6] A Nairobi TV
Station, KTN, in its news bulleting, quoting UNHCR, 17 April 2001.
[7] Kenya Broadcasting
Corporation TV (in English), Nairobi, 1800 gmt, 23 March 2000; Daily
Nation, 23 March 2000; “Landmines Kill 14, Injure Four Others In
Kenya,” PANA, Nairobi, Kenya, see AFRICA NEWS ONLINE:
http://www.africanews.org/index.html.
[8]Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p.
175.
[9] Interview with
Brigadier General Emiliano Tonui, Chief of Operations, Department of Defense,
Palais de Peuples, Djibouti, 16 November 2000.
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