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Last Updated: Thursday, 14 August, 2003, 21:26 GMT 22:26 UK
Eyewitness: Kenyan rape ordeal
Margaret Risambu, 30, is one of hundreds of Kenyan women who were allegedly raped by British soldiers in a period spanning 30 years. She spoke to BBC News Online:


It was in 1988 when I went to visit my brother-in-law who works at Wamba.

I travelled from Nairobi and when I went to Wamba I was like a local tourist because it is a remote place.

Maasai women demonstrators
The women want maintenance for their children
I decided to walk around and see the place, how it looks like.

It happened that my brother-in-law owned sheep and goats and I decided to follow the herd.

On the way there is a polytechnic which the British Army guys were constructing.

They asked me whether the goats were mine.

I told them they were my brother-in-law's and that I was just looking after them.

I did not know that they had anything behind it.

Dragged

The place is a bushy place with thorn trees and there is a certain river called the Namunyaki that you have to cross to get to the polytechnic.

They dragged me down.

They were four of them.

I was pregnant at that time... two months pregnant.

So, I started bleeding furiously and from that time in 1988 I have not been able to conceive.

I had some scratches on the thighs.

Medical tests

I do not have enough money to go for medical tests to find out what happened.

Maasai women demonstrators
The women claim the rapes went on for a period of 30 years
My case was in 1988 - there were many more cases before that.

This time we want to know what the British want with us.

We have the exhibits - the kids are there.

So we need them to tell us what they are going to do with us from now onwards.

Most of these kids are suffering - they are sick.

You look at the skin of a kid - you will never know what is happening.

We want education for those kids; we want shelter for those kids.

Most of those who were raped and now have kids left school.





SEE ALSO:
Kenyan women in rape protest
14 Aug 03  |  Africa
UK army denies Kenya cover-up
04 May 01  |  Africa


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