Senior British soldiers have been charged with hazing recruits at the Nanyuki military base by engaging in unprotected sex with prostitutes, exposing them to sexually transmitted infections.

According to a report in the UK-based Mail on Sunday, as part of an initiation process, recruits are given the option to wear a condom or not by flipping a coin.

“The more senior soldiers would flip a coin – heads you could use a condom, tails you could not,” said the report written by the British Medical Journal Military Health.

Given that HIV/AIDS affects 5% of Kenyans compared to 0.2% in the UK, the claims have allegedly frightened UK defence bosses.

A senior officer who had gone for a trim indicated in the report that soldiers were increasingly using prostitutes near the British base in Nanyuki, with some services even being provided at barbershops.

“When the haircut was complete, he was ushered towards a back room and shown a number of female sex workers,” the report said. The barber then asked if he would like any ‘extra services.’

The officer described how the events happened so quickly that it surprised him. He also added that he shared the story with other soldiers to warn them about the presence of sex workers and to provide them advice on “how to politely decline any similar offers.”

While soldiers in East Africa are provided with a sexual health handbook upon arrival, the report revealed that a third of squaddies could not recall receiving the advice and that the number of soldiers seeking treatment for related illnesses was higher than for UK-based troops.

Regarding the instances, Philip Ingram, a former Army intelligence officer, criticized the military leadership. “Annual training for all service personnel includes sexual health,” he stated.

“To hear that soldiers are being forced into some form of sexual initiation ceremony… where HIV rates are very high shocks me to the core. [It] once again highlights a failure in leadership and that the culture in the Army is still fundamentally broken,” he added.

However, British High Commissioner to Kenya Neil Wigan has stated that the regulations have been much stricter in the last few years, characterizing the report as “historic in nature.”

“The article seems to stem from a new research article just published, but which actually relies only on interviews with nine soldiers,” he toldNation.

According to the report, there is a “global reputational risk” associated with contracting a sexually transmitted disease from a prostitute, which might potentially lower the operational efficacy of the unit.

Every year, over 10,000 British soldiers are sent to Kenya to participate in up to eight weeks of live fire drills.

For research that was published in the British Medical Journal Military Health, soldiers were questioned upon their return about the use of prostitutes who frequent the area around the base.

A spokesperson for the UK Ministry of Defence has issued a warning: purchasing sex, whether done domestically or overseas, is forbidden, as is any other sexual conduct that entails the misuse of authority.

“We are committed to preventing sexual exploitation in any form,” he said.

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