A final decision on whether the British Army remains in Kenya or not will be made end of November.
The British govern is likely to pull out its army out of the country.
Kenyan born UK Chief of General Staff Gen. Nick Carter is expected to visit the 3rd battalion of the Paratroop Regiment presently training in Archers Post.
A decision will then be made after his visit.
The crisis according to the Star was occasioned by Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) adamant insistence that the British army should not train on private land.
They should only train on KDF land at Archers Post which dates back to 1945.
This is likely to rub the British government the wrong way.
The Defence Cooperation Agreement signed in December 2015 entitled British army to train in Laikipia as well as Archers Post. It ends in 2021.
The private land in Laikipia gives the perfect terrain for training compared to the KDF’s Archers post which is hot and flat.
The private lands have cooler temperatures and have varied terrains which are just perfect for army training. This again, dates back to 1950.
The British army has been training in Kenya for donkey years. They have a newly built sh10 billion army base built in Nanyuki, the main town of Laikipia County.
In estimates, the British Army training in Kenya is among major sources of income for Kenyan government.
Around £50 million a year (Sh6.75 billion) is spent by the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) in Laikipia.
Of this amount, £3 million (Sh405 million) is spent on leases with ranches and rent to landlords in Nanyuki.
The ranches in turn pay taxes to the Kenya Revenue Authority as well as Laikipia County Government.
In April, KDF instructed the British to cancel all leases with private landowners prompting Defence Estates department of the UK government to inform ranches and landowners that their leases would not be renewed.
The matter was thought to be a temporary issue but last month, KDF once again informed the British that there should be no training on private land.
Oman is wooing the British government to have her soldiers train in Oman where land will be provided at absolutely no cost.
In return, Oman wants her army trained by the British.
Should the British Army pull out of Kenya, they may go for Oman as the second option.
But, they could live up to the terms by KDF not to train in private land in Laikipia and limit their operations at Archers post.
The ripple effect for Kenya would be to have training support for the KDF including in places like Sandhurst and the Royal College of Defence Studies withdrawn by the British.