A soldier in a British Army uniform showed up at a protest crackdown in Nanyuki, and now the British High Commission wants answers.
The protests were directed at a US-linked Ebola quarantine facility in the area. When images and reports of the security operation surfaced, the British High Commission moved quickly to distance the British Army Training Unit Kenya, known as BATUK, from the whole affair. The Commission has formally demanded a response from the Kenyan government.
BATUK operates in Kenya as a training unit, not as a domestic security force, which makes the presence of its uniform at a civilian protest crackdown a serious diplomatic flashpoint. No explanation has yet been offered publicly for how or why the uniform appeared in that context.
This is one to watch. With tensions already running high over the quarantine facility itself, the question of who authorised that uniform, and why, is not going away quietly.
Originally published by AllAfrica.