Episode 1

DNA detectives track down the British soldiers who fathered children in Kenya then disappeared, leaving the children and their mothers without support. It’s a quest to find a missing part of the children’s identities.

With access to every stage of this cutting-edge process, we follow as a team of lawyers and a leading geneticist travel to Kenya to help locate the British soldiers who fathered children then vanished. We witness the groundbreaking legal and scientific detective work used to find the missing dads.

Lawyers believe British soldiers stationed at the army base in Nanyuki, Kenya, may have fathered hundreds of children over decades. The oldest we meet is now 70; the youngest is just 18 months old.

What’s at stake is more than the reputation of the British armed forces and the UK’s post-colonial legacy. The mixed-heritage children have in some cases been ostracised by their communities and denied a chance of British citizenship since birth – something which could transform their lives.

Searching for Soldier Dad is a BBC Long Form Audio production for the BBC World Service.

Please note, the image being used is for illustrative purposes only and the child depicted is a model.

Presenter: Ivana Davidovic
Producer: Josephine Casserly