Firefighters are battling a huge blaze sweeping through Lolldaiga, Laikipia that was sparked by British soldiers during a training exercise.
The British High Commission in Kenya on Friday said investigations are ongoing into the fire.
“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.
The fire, which started on Wednesday evening, has destroyed thousands of acres of vegetation as efforts to contain it continues and it is believed to have so far destroyed 10,000 acres of conservative land of the Lolldaiga training area, in Laikipia County.
The British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) whose soldiers were training in the area also confirmed the fire outbreak.
Kenya authorities have remained silent hours after the British Army training in the country started a fire that reportedly killed five elephants, including a calf.
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.
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.
