[allAfrica.com]  [Africa_2005]


Talks On UK Soldiers Training Pact to Resume

The Nation (Nairobi)
NEWS
December 2, 2005
Posted to the web December 1, 2005

By Juma Namlola
Nairobi
Britain and Kenya are to resume discussions on the extension of a contract for
UK soldiers to train in the country, it was announced yesterday.
High commissioner Adam Wood said in Mombasa yesterday that his country had not
yet pulled out of Kenya for another country in the East African region for the
training, "as it had not exhausted all diplomatic options in the negotiations".
British high commissioner to Kenya Adam Wood with the Council of Imams and
Preachers of Kenya secretary-general Sheikh Mohammed Dor in Tudor, Mombasa,
after talks with council officials yesterday . Photo by Gideon Maundu
He said talks on the training contract would resume immediately a new Cabinet
was appointed.
Kenya and Britain have been having a diplomatic row over the training of
British soldiers in Nanyuki and Isiolo after Kenya refused to renew the
agreement.
The Kenya Government has been reluctant to renew the 40-year agreement allowing
British soldiers access to local training fields. But we are confident that
once a new Cabinet is in place, we should be able to reach an agreement, Mr
Wood said at a Mombasa club after holding closed-door meetings with officials
of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK).
The Narc administration has been dragging its feet on the renewal of the
agreement, which expired last year. It was first signed when Kenya became a
republic and has continually been renewed until last year.
British soldiers have been enjoying an opportunity to train in Laikipia and
Isiolo where they are allowed to use live ammunition.
While ruling out any possibility of withdrawing from Kenya for a neighbouring
country, Mr Wood said the two countries have had good relations and believed
that negotiations with a new Cabinet would yield fruits.
It is true we have several options but we need to give the next Cabinet a
chance to review the deal and I am confident it would sail through, he said.
CIPK organising secretary Sheikh Mohamed Khalifa told the envoy they were not
supporting any state that generalised Muslims as terrorists and urged those
involved to be treated as isolated cases.
Muslims want anybody who practises terrorist acts to be treated as an
individual irrespective of his faith. It would be very wrong to consider every
Muslim a terrorist, he said.
The meeting called by Mr Wood discussed, among other issues, the banning of
foreign Muslim non-governmental organisations, which the leaders said had
adversely affected the lives of innocent people.
The NGOs were banned after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US. The
CIPK leaders said since the ban on the NGOs madrassa teachers and orphanages
have been operating under difficult conditions.

   

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