Kenya: Army

(asked on 26th February 2026) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many UK service personnel have been stationed at the British Army Training Unit Kenya in a (a) permanent and (b) temporary capacity in each of the last 10 financial years.


Answered by
Al Carns Portrait
Al Carns
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
This question was answered on 6th March 2026

As at October 2025 (latest available figure) there were 200 UK Regular1 Armed Forces Service personnel permanently stationed2 at the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK3).

Notes/Caveats

  1. UK Regulars comprise full time service personnel, including Nursing Services, but excluding Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) personnel, Gurkhas, Mobilised Reservists, Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS), Locally Engaged Personnel (LEP), Non Regular Permanent Staff (NRPS), High Readiness Reserve (HRR) and Expeditionary Forces Institute (EFI) personnel. Includes trained and untrained personnel.
  2. The figures are based on Service personnel's stationed location and not their location of residence - where personnel work isn't necessarily where they live. Personnel deployed on operations to an area away from their stationed location are shown against their most recent stationed location. The Royal Navy/Royal Marines personnel on sea service are included against the local authority containing the home port of their ship.
  3. BATUK has been derived from the Location Unit field in Joint Personnel Administration (JPA).
  4. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 to prevent inadvertent disclosure. However, numbers ending in "5" have been rounded to the nearest 20 to prevent systematic bias.

Table 1. Number of UK Regular1 Armed Forces Service Personnel stationed2 at BATUK3 2016 – 2025.

Year

Apr-16

Apr-17

Apr-18

Apr-19

Apr-20

Apr-21

Apr-22

Apr-23

Apr-24

Apr-25

Regulars

170

210

210

220

210

220

220

210

220

210

Source: Analysis(Tri Service)

Notes/Caveats

  1. UK Regulars comprise full time service personnel, including Nursing Services, but excluding Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) personnel, Gurkhas, Mobilised Reservists, Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS), Locally Engaged Personnel (LEP), Non Regular Permanent Staff (NRPS), High Readiness Reserve (HRR) and Expeditionary Forces Institute (EFI) personnel. Includes trained and untrained personnel.
  2. The figures are based on Service personnel's stationed location and not their location of residence - where personnel work isn't necessarily where they live. Personnel deployed on operations to an area away from their stationed location are shown against their most recent stationed location. The Royal Navy/Royal Marines personnel on sea service are included against the local authority containing the home port of their ship.
  3. BATUK has been derived from the Location Unit field in Joint Personnel Administration (JPA).
  4. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 to prevent inadvertent disclosure. However, numbers ending in "5" have been rounded to the nearest 20 to prevent systematic bias.

Table 2. Number of unique UK Armed Forces Service Personnel3 Deployed2 to BATUK7 in each of the last 10 Financial Years5,6,8

Financial Year

2015/16

2016/17

2017/18

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

2023/24

2024/25

Deployments

30

40

530

680

460

80

90

60

70

60

Source: Analysis (Tri Service)

Notes/Caveats

  1. Deployment data are derived from the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) `Move and Track` system. Due to ongoing validation of data from JPA, figures provided are provisional and subject to change. Figures have been derived from the October 2025 deployment extract.
  2. Deployment data are derived from the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) `Move and Track` system. Due to ongoing validation of data from JPA, figures provided are provisional and subject to change. Figures have been derived from the October 2025 deployment extract.
  3. ‘UK Forces Service Personnel’ comprises UK Regular Forces, Gurkhas, Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS), Locally Engaged Personnel (LEP), Volunteer Reserve, Serving Regular Reserve, Sponsored Reserve, and Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS).
  4. Service personnel data is derived from the JPA system, which is a combination of mandatory and non-mandatory fields populated by unit administrators and voluntary fields that Armed Forces personnel can choose to complete based on their perceptions.
  5. The Date of Deployment is the 'deployed date in' as recorded on JPA 'Move and Track' system. This is the date personnel deployed into the respective count.
  6. Please note: the total does not include repeat tours within the same calendar year so each individual is only recorded once per financial year. If personnel began a deployment in multiple financial years, then they would be reported in each financial year they were deployed in. Hence, figures can not be combined to give an overall number of unique personnel deployed over this whole period.
  7. BATUK has been derived from the Location Unit field in Joint Personnel Administration (JPA).
  8. The Financial Year for Defence Statistics purposes starts on 1 April and ends on 31 March.
  9. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 to prevent inadvertent disclosure. However, numbers ending in "5" have been rounded to the nearest 20 to prevent systematic bias.

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