Untouchable: Kenyan Authorities, Environmentalists silent after a fire started by British army killed elephants

LAIKIPIA, Kenya, Mar 26- Kenya authorities remained silent hours after the British Army training in the country started a fire that reportedly killed five elephants, including a calf.

The fire that was started on Wednesday night also destroyed 8,000 acres of conservative land of the Lolldaiga training area, in Laikipia County.

Also silent were Kenya’s ‘vocal’ environmentalists and animal conservationists, who seemingly turned a blind eye on the incident.

“Two months in Kenya later and we’ve only got eight days left. Been good, caused a fire, killed an elephant, and feel terrible about it but hey-ho, when in Rome.’ This post is believed to refer to last week’s inferno rather than the fire which is still ablaze,” a soldier wrote through his social media on the site Snapchat.

Renowned animal conservationist Dr. Paula Kahumbu said this on her Twitter handle while making reference to the soldier’s callous statement; “If this was a Kenyan, he would be behind bars for Eles & forest destruction. We stopped the poaching then this – what is Kenya / British going to do?

Thousands of British troops are trained in Kenya.

There are 230 military personnel permanently based in Kenya to train visiting UK troops and Kenyan forces.

Most are part of the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK).

The British soldiers are also accused of killing an elephant calf last week after firing a flare in an attempt to clear an elephant herd at a training site.

The British High Commission said investigations have commenced following the incident.

“Investigations are ongoing into the fire during a UK-led exercise. Our priority is to urgently assist the local community – we are putting all resources into containing the fire and working closely with the Kenyan authorities to manage the situation,” said the Commission, in a tweet.