‘They told me he was dead’: Children born near army base learn truth about UK soldier dads 4 days ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Josephine Casserly and Ivana Davidovic , BBC News BBC Yvonne was told her father was no longer alive – now he has been traced “Edward”, a nine-year-old Kenyan boy, has always been aware his father worked for the British military. The boy’s skin colour, lighter than his peers, has provoked years of bullying. His father disappeared before Edward [not his real name] was born, leaving his mum living in extreme poverty, ostracised by some of her family. Now this 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 a ground-breaking DNA and legal process as fathers of children born near the base. Paternity has so far been legally confirmed in 12 of the cases by the UK’s highest Family Court judge, a BBC World Service investigation can reveal. The process provides answers for children who did not know where, or even in some cases who their fathers were – or who had been led to believe they had died. All have been 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. UK solicitor James Netto, and Kelvin Kubai, a lawyer finding clients on the ground in Kenya, say there are nearly 100 documented cases of children born near the British Army Training Unit in Kenya (Batuk) to British soldiers. Netto believes there could be many more. James Netto (standing) travelled to Kenya to investigate the paternity cases Batuk, which was set up in 1964 and sees more than 5,000 British personnel pass through every year, has attracted significant controversy over the decades it has been located in Nanyuki, a market town 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 allegations of murder, rights violations, environmental destruction and the abandonment and neglect of local children. The UK Ministry of Defence responded that it “deeply regrets those issues and challenges which have arisen in relation to the UK’s defence presence in Kenya… We continue to take action wherever possible to address them”. Outside the UK, listen to the World of Secrets podcast here , or watch the Africa Eye film on YouTube James Netto was first alerted to the issue of children seeking their fathers in Nanyuki in 2024. He teamed up with leading genetics professor Denise Syndercombe Court and they arrived in Kenya “armed with a suitcase full of DNA kits”. They then cross-referenced the DNA samples they gathered with the genetic profiles available to view on commercial genealogy databases to find the absent British military fathers of clients aged from three years to 70. “Nothing like this has ever been done before, where you’re engaging DNA testing on such a scale” in the UK courts, Netto says. And he and his team have a huge pool of genetic information to compare their samples with. By last year, there were almost 30 million profiles available on Ancestry.com, the largest of the commercial DNA websites which Syndercombe Court joined and used as their main source. Netto says they had no idea how many leads they would get and were astounded by the good results. “We had completely distant family members, we had relatively close family members, all the way up to the bullseye hit of fathers being named and identified.” The breakthrough is potentially life-changing for Edward and his mother Nasibo, as he will now be entitled to financial support from his father. Nasibo faced financial difficulties after many of her relatives ostracised her for being a single mother “I used to think they were gentlemen,” Nasibo says of the B