Kenyans win UK service men paternity case

Seven people from Kenya have won a case at the Family Court in London to prove they were fathered by British men working at an army base in their country, reports BBC News. Commercially available DNA databases were used to identify otherwise unknown fathers. Six had served at the British Army Training Unit in Kenya (Batuk) and one worked as a contractor. It's the first time paternity has been proved in this way in a UK court. The decision opens the door for the offspring to apply for British citizenship. They were represented by British lawyer James Netto, who – together with leading geneticist Denise Syndercombe Court – had taken part in a project to collect DNA samples and testimonies from people in the Nanyuki region of Kenya. They encountered many people there who believed their fathers had served at nearby Batuk, the biggest British army base in Africa. Publicly available DNA databases were then used to try to locate any family members in the UK. Netto said the next step was to tackle more difficult cases – those who had little or no information about their fathers or family members. Andrew Macleod – a lawyer and campaigner involved in the DNA project – said he hoped that case would encourage the Ministry of Defence to take on more responsibility for paternity claims made against Batuk servicemen. The Ministry of Defence said that ‘while paternity claims against UK Service Personnel are a private life issue, the government co-operates with local child support authorities where there are claims relating to paternity’.