It has been alleged that senior British soldiers incited recruits stationed at the Nanyuki military installation in Kenya to engage in unprotected sexual relations with prostitutes as a form of hazing, putting them at risk for STDs.
This is in line with a claim that appeared in the UK’s Mail on Sunday, revealing that as part of an initiation procedure, recruits are given the option to wear a condom or not at the flip of a coin.
“The more experienced soldiers would toss a coin; on a heads result, you could use a condom, on a tails result, you could not,” the British Medical Journal Military Health article stated.
Given that HIV/AIDS affects 5% of Kenyans compared to 0.2 percent in the UK, the assertions have apparently terrified UK defense chiefs.
According to a senior officer who had gone for a haircut, the report also alerted the military authorities to the soldiers’ increasing use of prostitutes near the British base in Nanyuki. Some services were even provided at barbershops.
The report stated, “After getting his haircut, he was led to a back room and shown several female prostitutes.” He was then asked whether he wanted any “extra services” by the barber.
The officer described how the events happened so quickly that it surprised him. He also added that he shared the story with other soldiers to warn them about the presence of sex workers and to provide them advice on “how to politely decline any similar offers.”
Sexual Health
Although troops stationed in East Africa are provided with a sexual health guide upon arrival, the survey revealed that a higher proportion of soldiers sought treatment for related illnesses than their UK-based counterparts. Additionally, a third of squaddies claimed not to have received the advice.
Philip Ingram, a former Army intelligence officer, chastised the military establishment for the occurrences. “Annual training for all service personnel includes sexual health,” he stated.
“To hear that soldiers are being forced into some form of sexual initiation ceremony… where HIV rates are very high shocks me to the core. [It] once again highlights a failure in leadership and that the culture in the Army is still fundamentally broken,” he added.
However, British High Commissioner to Kenya Neil Wigan has stated that the regulations have been much stricter in the last few years, characterizing the report as “historic in nature.”
“The article seems to stem from a new research article just published, but which relies only on interviews with nine soldiers,” he reported.
According to the report, there is a “global reputational risk” associated with contracting a sexually transmitted disease from a prostitute, which might potentially lower the operational efficacy of the unit.
Every year, over 10,000 British soldiers are sent to Kenya to participate in up to eight weeks of live fire drills.
Soldiers were questioned about using the prostitutes who frequent the area around the base when they returned for a research that was published in the British Medical Journal Military Health.
A spokesman for the UK Ministry of Defence has issued a warning: purchasing sex, whether done domestically or overseas, is forbidden as is any other sexual conduct that entails the misuse of authority.
“Our goal is to stop sexual exploitation in all its forms,” he declared.
