# British troops never left: garrisons, bases, and the leash after empire Independence did not end the foreign army. Weeks after the 1964 flag-raisings, Kenyatta, Nyerere, and Obote each called back British troops to put down army mutinies; BATUK still garrisons Kenya under a defence pact critics call de facto immunity; and Britain kept bases from Cyprus to Diego Garcia while intervening from Aden to Sierra Leone. *This story parallel: The military-industrial complex and Pax Americana* *This story parallel: Client dictators: the strongmen the powers kept* *This story parallel: Dependency: why independence did not bring economic freedom* *This story parallel: Jomo Kenyatta: from Johnstone Kamau to the verdict on independence* *This story parallel: Co-opt the moderate, bury the militant: the pattern of managed decolonization* *This story part of: Military and security* *The new powers abroad: US bases, immunity, and Israeli arms continues this story* *Françafrique: how France kept its African colonies after independence parallel this story* *Conservation and land: the conservancies of northern Kenya parallel this story* *Kenya's web of agreements: the treaties that bind a state parallel this story* *Kenya armed forces: the colonial security inheritance parallel this story* ## 29 October 1956 — The Suez base and the 1956 invasion of Egypt After Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal, Britain and France invaded in coordination with Israel to seize the canal zone that had long hosted a huge British military base. The operation captured Port Said but collapsed under United States and Soviet pressure, forcing a humiliating withdrawal. Suez marked the limits of Britain's ability to hold its old imperial bases by force. > "The failed invasion of Nasser's Egypt began on October 29, 1956." > — Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference, p. 444-447 ## 16 August 1960 — Cyprus keeps British Sovereign Base Areas at independence When Cyprus became independent, Britain retained two Sovereign Base Areas at Akrotiri and Dhekelia as its own sovereign territory. The bases kept British military airfields and listening stations on the island under direct British control. Cypriot independence therefore came with permanent slices of the island carved out for the former ruler's armed forces. ## December 1962 — Gurkha garrison guards the Sultan of Brunei British Gurkha troops put down the 1962 Brunei revolt against the Sultan, and a British garrison has remained in the protectorate ever since. A Gurkha battalion stayed on after Brunei became fully independent in 1984, funded by the Sultan under a defence arrangement. It is one of the clearest cases of British forces staying to protect a friendly ruler long after formal empire ended. ## 10 December 1963 — The Aden Emergency and Britain's last stand in Arabia A grenade attack on the British High Commissioner opened a four-year insurgency against British rule in the Aden colony and protectorate. British troops fought a bitter urban and up-country campaign against nationalist fighters before withdrawing in November 1967. The struggle to hold the strategic port and its base ended in a full British evacuation. ## 20 January 1964 — Tanganyika Rifles mutiny at Colito Barracks Weeks after independence, soldiers of the 1st Battalion Tanganyika Rifles mutinied at Colito Barracks near Dar es Salaam over pay and the slow replacement of British officers. President Julius Nyerere went into hiding as the revolt spread and the government lost control of its own army. Within days he concluded he could not restore order alone and turned to the former colonial power for military help. ## 23 January 1964 — Uganda mutiny at Jinja brings British troops back Soldiers of the Uganda Rifles mutinied at Jinja barracks, echoing the revolt in neighbouring Tanganyika. Prime Minister Milton Obote requested British military assistance to contain the rising. British troops were flown in and moved to disarm the mutineers and secure the government. ## 24 January 1964 — Kenya mutiny at Lanet and Kenyatta's call for help The 11th Battalion Kenya Rifles mutinied at Lanet barracks near Nakuru, weeks after Kenya's independence. Jomo Kenyatta requested British help, and British forces already stationed in Kenya moved in to disarm the battalion and end the revolt. All three East African leaders, Nyerere, Obote, and Kenyatta, had reached for the former colonizer's troops in the same month. ## 25 January 1964 — Royal Marines disarm the Tanganyika mutineers At Nyerere's request, 45 Commando Royal Marines landed from the carrier HMS Centaur and moved on Colito Barracks, backed by aircraft and helicopters. They overpowered the mutineers, disarmed the battalion, and restored the government within hours. Newly independent Tanganyika had to call back the former colonizer's forces to survive its first month of self-rule. ## c. April 1964 — Nigerian troops replace the British in Tanganyika Nyerere found the reliance on British troops humiliating and asked the Organisation of African Unity to help him replace them. Nigerian soldiers were sent to take over garrison duty so the British could withdraw. He then disbanded the mutinous Tanganyika Rifles and rebuilt the army, but the episode had shown how thin the new state's independent security really was. ## c. 1964 — Britain keeps training rights in Kenya after independence After Kenya became independent in December 1963, Britain retained the right to send army units to train on Kenyan ranges and terrain. The arrangement around Nanyuki and the Laikipia plateau meant British soldiers kept returning to the former colony on a regular rotation. This recurring presence later took formal shape as the British Army Training Unit Kenya. ## 1965 — British and SAS role in Oman's Dhofar War Britain backed the Sultan of Oman against a leftist insurgency in the southern province of Dhofar, providing officers, air power, and SAS teams. British-backed forces helped install Sultan Qaboos in a 1970 palace coup and then won the war by 1975. It was a largely covert post-colonial campaign that kept a strategic Gulf state firmly in the Western camp. ## 8 November 1965 — Britain detaches the Chagos Islands to form BIOT Britain split the Chagos Islands from its colony of Mauritius and created the British Indian Ocean Territory shortly before Mauritian independence. The move was made to provide a base site for the United States on the largest island, Diego Garcia. It kept the archipelago under British control precisely as the surrounding empire was being dismantled. ## c. 1968 — Chagossians expelled to build the Diego Garcia base Between roughly 1968 and 1973 Britain removed the entire Chagossian population from the islands, deporting them mainly to Mauritius and the Seychelles. The clearance made way for a large United States military base on Diego Garcia, built under a 1966 Anglo-American agreement. The islanders were left in poverty far from home and spent decades fighting in the courts for return and compensation. ## c. 1969 — Gibraltar kept as a permanent British garrison Britain retained Gibraltar as a fortified naval and military base at the mouth of the Mediterranean, holding it through disputes with Spain. A 1969 constitution reaffirmed British sovereignty as Spain closed the land border in protest. The Rock remained a garrisoned British territory, guarding a strategic chokepoint long into the post-colonial era. ## c. 1974 — BATUK established as a permanent presence at Nanyuki The British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) became a standing garrison based at Nanyuki, supporting infantry battalions and other units that rotate through Kenya each year. It uses ranges across the Laikipia plateau and surrounding conservancies for live-fire and jungle training. Decades after independence, a permanent British military footprint remained on Kenyan soil. *Source: Moving the Maasai: A Colonial Misadventure* *Source: Lewa Milele* *Source: Stealth Game: Community Conservancies Devastate Land & Lives in Northern Kenya* ## 21 September 1981 — British forces remain in Belize after independence When Belize became independent, British forces stayed on to deter a long-standing territorial claim by neighbouring Guatemala. British Forces Belize maintained a garrison and jungle-training presence for years afterward. The former colony's first years of sovereignty were underwritten by the continued military protection of its former ruler. ## May 2000 — Operation Palliser intervenes in Sierra Leone As rebels advanced on the capital of its former colony, Britain launched Operation Palliser and flew in paratroopers and marines. The force secured Freetown and the airport, evacuated foreign nationals, and shored up the government against the Revolutionary United Front. British troops stayed on to help end the civil war, a late example of the former ruler returning in strength. ## 2002 — MoD settles unexploded ordnance claims from herders Britain's Ministry of Defence agreed to pay compensation to Maasai and Samburu herders killed or maimed by unexploded munitions left on training ranges used by British troops. The settlement, in a case brought by the law firm Leigh Day, covered hundreds of claimants. It documented that live-fire training near local communities had caused deaths and injuries over many years. ## c. 2010 — The Training Lands and Airfield at Nanyuki BATUK is not only the Nanyuki barracks: British units train across vast leased ranges in Laikipia and Samburu and use the airfield at Nanyuki, one of the largest foreign-army training footprints on the continent and a standing military presence on Kenyan soil decades after independence. The live-fire ranges are the source of the unexploded ordnance that has killed and maimed herders and of recurring disputes over land and compensation. ## March 2012 — Killing of Agnes Wanjiru near a BATUK base Agnes Wanjiru, a 21-year-old Kenyan woman, disappeared after last being seen with British soldiers in Nanyuki and was later found dead in a hotel septic tank. A 2019 Kenyan inquest concluded she had been killed by one or more British soldiers. The specific culprit has not been established in court, and the case remains unresolved despite renewed investigation. ## 25 February 2019 — ICJ finds Britain's Chagos administration unlawful The International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion that Britain's continued administration of the Chagos Islands was unlawful and that decolonisation of Mauritius had not been lawfully completed. It called on Britain to end its control as rapidly as possible. The United Nations General Assembly then voted overwhelmingly to endorse the opinion. ## 2021 — BATUK and the Question of Immunity On paper the UK-Kenya Defence Cooperation Agreement gives Kenya jurisdiction over crimes British soldiers commit against Kenyans off duty, but in practice BATUK personnel have invoked diplomatic immunity to avoid Kenyan investigations and parliamentary summons. Kenya's Parliament voted in 2021 to strip that immunity and Britain rejected the change, so it never took effect. No British soldier has ever been prosecuted in a Kenyan court, including over the unresolved killing of Agnes Wanjiru, which Kenyan lawmakers and victims' families call de facto immunity. Residents around Nanyuki also note that the unit's vehicles carry their own distinctive plates, a small visible mark of a force that operates partly outside ordinary Kenyan rules. *Source: UK/Kenya: Agreement concerning Defence Cooperation* *Source: British Army Training Unit Kenya* *Source: House begins to debate report on Kenya-UK Defence Cooperation Agreement* ## 2021 — UK-Kenya Defence Cooperation Agreement formalises BATUK Kenya ratified a renewed Defence Cooperation Agreement with the United Kingdom, updating an earlier 2015 accord that gives BATUK its legal footing. The treaty sets out the terms for British troops to train in Kenya, including questions of jurisdiction over service members. It confirmed in law a British military presence that had continued unbroken since independence. ## March 2021 — Lolldaiga Hills fire during BATUK training A large fire broke out on the Lolldaiga Hills conservancy during a British Army training exercise, burning through thousands of acres of grassland and wildlife habitat. Local residents reported smoke, health effects, and destruction of grazing land. The incident became another flashpoint in long-running friction between BATUK and communities around Nanyuki. *Source: African Centre for Corrective and Preventive Action & 6 others v Lolldaiga Hills Limited & 2 others; Kenya Wildlife Service & another* *Source: Lolldaiga inferno victims to be compensated* *Source: British troops fighting fire in Kenya* ## October 2021 — Sunday Times revelations reopen the Wanjiru case A Sunday Times investigation reported that fellow soldiers had named a suspect in Agnes Wanjiru's killing and that the army had failed to act on the claims. The revelations prompted the UK to say it would cooperate with Kenyan authorities and renewed calls for justice. No one has been convicted, and the accusations against any individual remain unproven in court. ## c. 2021 — Claims over children fathered and left behind Kenyan women and campaigners raised claims that British soldiers on rotation had fathered children with local women and then left without support. The accounts featured in Kenyan and British reporting alongside the wider scrutiny of BATUK. These are attributed claims from affected families, and the individual cases have not been formally adjudicated. ## October 2024 — Britain agrees to hand Chagos sovereignty to Mauritius Britain announced a deal to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius while keeping the Diego Garcia military base under a long lease. The agreement was presented as securing the base for decades to come. It confirmed that the strategic purpose of the islands had always been to host Anglo-American military power, even as legal sovereignty changed hands.