World Of Secrets - Searching for Soldier Dad: 5. Answers

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

Cathy and Peter are now speaking with their dads. But are the new relationships all they hoped for? Lawyer James Netto has a “day in court like no other” when a father makes a shock appearance. And we travel to a barracks in the South of England to ask pressing questions of the British Army. Please note, the image being used is for illustrative purposes only and the child depicted is a model. World of Secrets will be back soon with gripping new investigations. Presenter: Ivana Davidovic Series producer: Josephine Casserly Sound design: Tom Brignell Executive producer: Matt Willis Commissioning senior producers: Katy Davis and Anne Dixey Commissioning editor: Jon Manel

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so you never miss an episode. Before we get started, if I could just give you a quick health and safety brief. Yeah. We're in a nondescript one-story block at Worminster Army Barracks in the south-west of England. As we drove in, we passed a huge military tank parked on the low. lawn outside. What I would ask, please, and this is really important, is you're on red passes, so you have

to be escorted everywhere you go in this building, okay? This is the British Army's key training hub for soldiers and officers. Any other emergencies, don't worry about it, just do whatever we tell you to do. Up to now, we've heard from the children fathered by British soldiers, their mothers and one father. But there is one perspective we haven't heard. After months of communication with the UK Ministry of Defence, they have agreed to an interview with Brigadier Simon Ridgway,

the commanding officer for the collective training group. The producer Josephine and I talked to the Brigadier as my colleague set up our cameras. He knows the British Army training unit Kenya, or Batuk as it's called, very well. He first trained there himself back in 2012, and he's been there many times since. Do you have any memories of when you were there?

Yeah. You know, the fact that you wake up. up in the morning, you can see Mount Kenya in the distance, the wildlife that's there. You know, I think it's a pretty incredible place to go. And I think everyone who goes there comments on the sort of the unique experience it is and, you know, what a privilege it is to train that. Tell us a bit about what's the role of Batuck for the British militiam. So it is a fundamental part of our ability to train our people,

either to deploy in operations or to be held at readiness to deploy in operations. And the thing about Batuk is the size of the training area that we have access to and the demanding conditions that people have to train in while they're there. There is nowhere else we can do the type of training we do. I suppose it sounds to me like for you, making sure that Batu can survive and stay in Kenya and that the host country is happy about it is quite important. It is absolutely fundamental. I mean, I think that is something that we take so incredibly seriously

and is at the forefront of our minds at all stages. The British military's training unit in Kenya is essential to its operations and they have invested huge amounts of money into vast training fields over decades. But in Kenya, there is hostility towards the British military presence and their future in the country is under scrutiny. For two years, I've been following a DNA testing project which has tracked down British soldiers who fathered children in Kenya and then disappeared. What we've uncovered is a pattern that spans decades.

The oldest child of a British soldier in this project is 70. The youngest is only three. This is not about a handful of irresponsible dads. This goes much deeper. And I want to get answers about why this pattern has persisted from when Kenya was a British colony until today. Why mothers have been left without financial support and children left searching for their dads.

If somebody hears your interview who is struggling to survive because they're trying to support a child on their own, do you think they'll be heartened by your answers now? This is World of Secrets, Season 12, Searching for Soldier Dad, a BBC World Service investigation. I'm Ivana Davidovich, a BBC journalist. Episode 5. Answers

Kenya has launched a... landmark inquiry against the Royal British Army. Decades of human rights abuses and sexual abuses. In December last year, a Kenyan parliamentary committee published a 94-page report following a two-year inquiry into the conduct of the British Army Training Unit Kenya, or Batuk. It covers the period from independence until the present day. The inquiry found...

Batuk's immunity from Kenyan law effectively forces impunity. There have been reports of misconduct by Batuk soldiers. Community engagement by Batuk was found to be severely lacking. The report said that local communities had complained of killings, assaults, public fights and fatal traffic incidents involving British soldiers. The most infamous case highlighted in the report is that of Agnes Vanjuru. It's alleged that 21-year-old was stabbed by one or more British soldiers. her body left in a septic tank, but no one has ever been brought to justice. It's one of the most chilling cases, but that report highlights a pattern of behavior

and concludes that the British Army Training Unit Kenya is, increasingly seen as an occupying presence rather than a development partner, with affected residents drawing parallels to colonial injustices. Kenya was of course a British colony until the 60s. And there's something repeatedly raised in this report, which is much closer to our story, the children abandoned by British soldiers. Children fathered by Batuk soldiers have been neglected by their British fathers.

It's even included in the recommendations that UK and Kenyan governments should negotiate mechanisms to hold soldiers accountable for child support for those born of relationships between Kenyan women and British soldiers. And this is not the first time this issue has been on the agenda of the British military. In 2003, the British military conducted an internal inquiry through which they identified 69 children fathered by soldiers. That was over 20 years ago.

Now, there are nearly 100 documented cases of children born to British military personnel in Kenya, who have grown up without knowing their dads. But the DNA project's lawyer in London, James Netto, who's been representing his clients in the courts in the UK, believes it may be more. You've got men being paid by the British taxpayer, going out to Kenya. And I mean, look, they're training in Kenya.

And in that time, they're getting hundreds of local women pregnant. And you and I are paying for this. We're all collectively paying for this, bankrolling them to be there. So they've got a lot to answer for. The MOD knows this all too well. Look, I've written to them, they've had inquiries, the Kenyan Parliament has been investigating this. They can't continue to turn a blind eye to this.

Yeah, well, hopefully I'm in a position to answer all your questions. Yeah, well... At the MOD's training hub, I sit across from Brigadier Ridgeway. He's dressed in army fatigues and a beret, and he shuffles through his notes. Through our own reporting, we have heard numerous accounts of British soldiers fathering children in Kenya. And we know that these people, these children, this offspring range in ages from 3 to 70. I think you would agree that British soldiers are representatives of the British state.

What responsibility does the Minister of Defence take for this? So I think that all the issues to do with paternity, they're a private life issue. and we are there to support and answer any or deal with any allegations that come in. I think the important thing is for people who have those concerns or allegations, that they then go through the correct channels. There's the opportunity to engage with the Kenyan National Children's Service. They then engage with the UK and we then provide whatever support in terms of answering questions and dealing with those allegations as they come in.

But I don't think I can comment any first. I can comment any further on that. As I listen to this, I think about Peter, the 34-year-old who says he tried to ask for help seven times at the British military barracks in Anuki. We have spoken to several people who have said to us, they have tried to go to Batuk authorities, they've tried to access community liaison officers,

they've been told that the one in charge is not around, or they just couldn't really understand how to access any information they need, Do you not think that for the benefit of the local community and these children, you should make it easier for these people to access these officers? So we operate under the current Defence Corporation Agreement, which is an agreement between the UK and Kenyan governments. That stipulates that any interaction with us needs to be done through the Kenyan Ministry of Defence.

The Defence Corporation Agreement is a pact between the Kenyan and UK governments, which sets out the terms under which the British military is allowed to operate in the country. These agreements allow for the British military to train in the country. In return, they train Kenyan soldiers and the two countries cooperate on anti-terrorism efforts. And so we need to abide by that defence cooperation agreement. And that can sometimes be time-consuming and frustrating.

If we want to change that process, then that requires a request to go in to the Kenyan Ministry of Defence. So are you actually saying to me that because there isn't some wording in the defence cooperation agreement that if there is a mother that has a one-year-old child and she's not getting any answers of support from the father of her child, that she needs to be petitioning the Minister of Defence of Kenya to speak with anybody within the army? We need to respect the Defence Cooperation Agreement, which are the rules that regulate how we operate and work in Kenya.

and it would be wrong of us to try and get round that agreement. That wouldn't be appropriate. Okay. Tell me about the training of the soldiers. Do you think that pre-deployment training should include what happens if a soldier father's a child? What is expected from him? In response to a number of investigations and inquiries,

we've introduced a whole load of new measures that we now conform to. That includes making sure that all those soldiers, who deploy Tabatic prior to departure and on arrival are briefed on their roles, their responsibilities, the customs, the regulations, the laws in Kenya and the culture to make sure that they understand what the consequences could be and reinforcing the fact that we have a zero tolerance approach to sexual exploitation and abuse. Well, having a child is not an offence. Regardless of the circumstances of conception or a relationship, is there anything in the training that you

are providing now that specifically talks about the obligations if a soldier has a child. So all that, the training that is conducted highlights the fact that lots of this is sexual exploitation and abuse of people and that that is unacceptable. What do you tell them about father and children? What is the part of the training at the moment if you can tell me a bit more about it? So I'm not able to go into any of the details of that as we stand right now. If somebody hears your interview who is, struggling to survive because they're trying to support a child on their own.

Do you think they'll be heartened by your answers now? So I can only imagine how difficult those circumstances must be. But we need to continue to abide by the rules and policies and regulations of the defence cooperation agreement that we have with the Kenyan government. I want to know how the Brigadier feels about that parliamentary committee report, which said that the British army in Kenya is increasingly seen as an occupying presence. We're there at the invitation of the Kenyan government. We work incredibly hard with local communities and leaders to make sure that we're working

to do the best possible training that we can while also investing in the local economy and into making a difference with local communities. We've answered all the questions that were posed to us openly, honestly, transparently. We've supported any sort of investigation. Some of the details were perhaps incorrect or inaccurate. I think the response that we provided to the parliamentary inquiry recognised that there were issues, challenges, misunderstanding, miscommunication in the past. And we deeply regret any negative impact from our presence in Kenya.

And what about that recommendation in the Kenyan Parliamentary Committee report? For the two governments to begin immediate negotiations, to establish mechanisms to hold British soldiers accountable for child maintenance, and to support further DNA testing, that report was published four months ago. I want to know if there has been any progress. In response to the parliamentary inquiry, there have been regular meetings between both the UK and the Kenyan Ministries of Defence

to talk about what was highlighted in that inquiry and providing a response, and that work is ongoing. After the interview, we followed up with the Ministry of Defence to request precise details of any training given to soldiers on their responsibilities if they father a child. They sent us an overview of their training on sexual abuse and exploitative, which did not include any mention of fathering children. After the interview, I spoke to Andrew McLeod.

He's the Australian lawyer who we met in Kenya and who had the original idea for the DNA testing project. I told him about some of the MOD's responses, and even over the video call, his anger was palpable. For the MOD to now say, this is a private matter, is revolting beyond belief. The MOD should be going out to Nanyuki with DNA tests and say anyone who claims that their father was a British soldier, please spit in this tube, do the DNA test and give those British

citizen children the rights that the Ministry of Defence is set up to defend. The Ministry of Defence's role is to defend not just the landmass of Britain but British citizens. For the participants in the DNA project, now their fathers have been confirmed, many can begin the registration to become British citizens. But this project has always been about much more than passports. For many, it has provided answers to lifelong questions about who their fathers are and where they come from. And some are now in touch with their dads, hoping to build relationships. In November 2025, a year after the first DNA samples were collected, we go back to Kenya for a final time.

To find out where this story ends for Cathy, Peter and Yvonne. I'm with Kathy at a rooftop cafe overlooking Nairobi. She was the sister who went unnoticed. A daffodil might look plain next to a lily, but on its own there is much to be admired. Now, her greatest chapter is yet to come. The most important thing is to be yourself. From the world of Jane Austen's pride and prejudice, comes a new Britbox original drama.

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Visit BBC.com slash audio or download the BBC app to start listening. Skyline. How have you been? I've been good, just living life. I've gotten a job, finally. And I'm just adulting right now, I guess. and surviving, yeah. Kathy's mom Maggie met her dad, Phil,

when he was on a deployment in Kenya. They were engaged. But when Kathy was a baby, Phil left and never returned. Kathy spent years trying to contact her dad over Facebook. Since we met last year, a lot has changed for Kathy. She's finished school, moved to Kenya's capital,

Nairobi, and started talking to her dad, Phil, who was like to her dad, located through the DNA project. We spoke to him in the last episode. He said he wanted to build a relationship with Kathy. Do you remember the exact day when you first heard from your dad? Yeah, it was awkward.

We're not that close yet. We're getting there. What do you make of him? I mean, he's cool, I guess. I mean, I haven't really, you know, been that deep with him yet so I can't exactly place him somewhere yet he's just someone I'm talking to right now not not exactly like someone I see as a dad or anything just we're not yet there have you had any difficult conversations about

why he abandoned you no I'm not that I can't say confidence I just don't feel like it's the right time to have a deep conversation with him. I'd like to get to know him first and at least establish a bond so that we can go further into such conversations. Kathy's finished high school, but she doesn't have the certificate yet. Her mom hasn't been able to pay off the tuition fees for her final year, so she's struggled to move on in her education or career. She's managed to find reception work at a high-end gym,

but her employer only pays her a small travel and food allowance of around $80 a month, calling it an internship. She's supplementing her income with some acting work in local soap operas. What are you hopeful for? I'm hopeful for starting school, maybe when I'm 21, and maybe getting to travel more and explore and I can finally know myself. I can get to know myself as a person more expansively

than just one part of myself. It's time for Kathy to start her shift at work, so we jump in a taxi and head over to the gym. She tells me that Phil has sent her and her mom some money over the last couple of months. Do you expect him to support you now? Or do you just hope he does? I hope he does.

I really don't expect anything, to be honest, because expecting things just end up disappointing you, so I just let things go in the flow. He was very convinced that when you talk that he sort of sees you too as being quite alike in your mannerisms and your style of speaking. That's what he was saying. Kind of, kind of, because there's parts where we're... We'd actually laugh at literally nothing. And I'd sit down and be like, why are we laughing again? Do you still feel angry with that?

I mean, I'm neutral right now, to be honest. I don't know exactly what to feel. So I just decide instead of feeling angry or sad or whatever, to just let it just pass by the way it's going to pass by. And we'll know later on. Hi, hi. Hi. Hi.

It's so good to see you. You have different hair. You are very sexy red head. Love that. Next stop, Kathy's mum, Maggie. She's also moved to Nairobi since we last met. Things have changed since we met last year. At least I'm in a better position right now, I will see.

Maggie compared her and Phil's romance to Romeo and Juliet. There were love letters, even a public proposal at Nairobi Airport. But then, the heartbreak. of his departure haunted her for years. Now that Phil has been found through this project, they're in regular contact. And when I met Phil, I was surprised to hear he had hopes they might get back together.

Yeah, he's like now he won't come back and like the other day he texted me and say, oh, I wish you're here. I'm not rude, but I'm farm. I have my boundaries. Who's going to compensate me? For the 18 years that I have done the work alone, you know.

And we were talking about me, going through a lot because of him. So, okay, I can forgive him, but I can't forget. As we're talking, I noticed that Maggie's finger is bare. When I met her at the DNA testing in December 2024, she was still wearing the engagement ring, feel gave to her all those years ago. Not anymore.

She tells me she sold it a few months ago when she and Kathy were struggling to buy food. It hurt me to sell with the ring. I think I was like maybe one day he will come back. But I told him the truth the other day and he was like he's fine with it. He will buy another one. I'm like, I don't know.

So he's saying that he will buy another rain? Yeah, that's what he told me because I told him myself because we didn't have food, me and your daughter. Yeah. I wonder if finally having some answers about what happened to Phil after all these years of questioning will allow Maggie to move into a new phase of her life.

She's hoping to start her own business in Nairobi. but we'll feel be part of this new phase. Next, we're on the roads towards Nanuki and its cooler mountain air. We drive to Peter's family's avocado farm, where I first met him a year ago. Peter's mum raised him alone in poverty in Anuki and suffered from alcoholism. Peter used to dream of finding his father,

and through this project, he did. The two of them were reunited on a... an emotional video call. I hope we see us very soon. I say God love for you, Dad. But as soon as Peter and I start chatting, I can tell that the hope I felt from him before has faded. Things didn't come out how I thought they would come out.

I thought when I would find my dad, he will be there for me. But right now, I don't feel like he cares about me because he don't talk to me much. Peter says that they haven't spoken since their video call a few months earlier, just the occasional message. On that call, there were promises made of adding Peter to the family WhatsApp group or maybe meeting in person one day.

But to Peter, they're starting to feel empty. What makes me sad is I thought things would be different when I find him, you know? Maybe he thinks I'm after his money or I don't know. But me, I just need my dad, that's all. As we're talking, I get a glimpse into this new relationship when Peter receives a message from his dad. He just replied me now, yeah. Has he? What did he say?

Do you don't mind me asking? He told me, please rest assured that I do care about you. We all appreciate your message and respect your feelings. It's only been three months and we are still processing as a family. Please be patient. Love, Dad. Reading this message, Peter's whole demeanour softens. That hope is back in his eyes.

Okay, so you feel heartened by this. If he needs time, I will give him time, you know. Let's see what will happen. Maybe next year things will be different. I hope for all the best, you know. This last year has been a roller coaster for Peter, the hope of finding his father, followed by the pure joy of speaking to him for the first time,

calling him dad. And then now there is a flatness of unfulfilled expectations. On that final trip to Kenya in December last year, there is one person still waiting to make contact with their dad. Yvonne, the 18-year-old budding journalist who grew up believing she was an orphan. Her mum died when she was a baby. and she believed her dad did too.

Her grandma told us that British soldiers had passed on a message to the family that Yvonne's dad had died. But the DNA testing project has since identified her father, were calling him Kieran. But neither James, the lawyer in London, the court nor I, have managed to make contact with him,

and it's getting serious. If he continues not to respond to James' requests, the judge may take additional staff, like summoning his mother to court or even issuing a warrant for his arrest. For Yvonne, she's gone from believing this man is dead to hoping for a relationship with him. I can't imagine being a girl daddy, having my dad back.

I just knew like he was dead. I had no thoughts that would be found and here I didn't use that. He's alive. I was feeling happy. I was happy. You mentioned a term daddy's girl. What does that mean to you?

Him giving me the love that I deserve. Like, he appreciates me being in his life. For Yvonne, this search for her dad has ignited the grief she feels for her mom. Also miss her too. Even though I've never seen her, I just think, I miss her too. It's hard growing up without a mum, right? Yeah. It's not, nothing really replaces that.

I just wish I was with my mom. Like, everything will be a little bit better knowing that I have my mom on my side. What is the, in your dreams, what do you see if she was still alive you and your mom doing together? Going for picnic with her, taking photos. Like, enjoying everything.

Every single moment, yeah, with her beside me. Yvonne has missed out on the love of a parent. And listening to her, I have a feeling of apprehension. Is this man who isn't responding to the court going to fulfill her dreams of a father-daughter relationship? Can you picture a scenario where you think I'd rather. I never had found him, you know, where things don't work out the way you want to. And maybe you think I was actually more at peace when I thought he was dead. If we were happy to find him, then he denies, I'm not there, his child.

Maybe I would be more desperate and I wish this would have never happened because I had hopes that he will be found and he's now found. and he still denies it. I would be much offended. Do you care about other family members? Would you be interested, though, to find out about them? Yeah. I think I would be interested.

To see some of my granddaughter's artist efforts and you see the pair of ballet shoes there because they both do ballet. Back in the UK, I'm in a suburban house in the south of England. And then hearts, they love doing stickers and all. and obviously an award there, but we're never quite sure what it's for. Children's paintings are strung up on a piece of string across the kitchen wall. I did my DNAs. My husband's very keen on family history, and I thought, why not? We're going to call this woman Anthea to protect the privacy of her family.

She's in her 70s with short grey hair and a long blue dress. When I meet her, we've been talking on the phone for weeks, and she's just as warm in person. She tells me that for months her DNA was sitting on Ancestry's database. Occasionally, she'd get a notification about a third or sixth cousin somewhere in the world. But then, her search for a long-lost relative took a turn she never expected. I was a bit surprised getting a letter from a lawyer on very official looking paper. She calls the number at the bottom of the letter. It's for lawyer, James Netto.

When I had the conversation, James, I know one of the things he did tell me the name of the girl Yvonne. This girl, he tells her, might be a relative. It was a huge surprise. And to begin with, I thought, couldn't connect anything with Kenya. And then I thought, ah, yes, that's right, that is my cousin that was out there. Yvonne's dad, Kieran, is still not responding to the court. and Anthea feels a sense of responsibility. Yvonne's a relative of mine, maybe not particularly close,

but she deserves to find her family and perhaps get some help from her family. Why is this so important to you that you are engaging with this process, that you're doing the exact opposite of your other family members? I just think blood is thicker than water. I kind of feel, I suppose in my life, the age I am now, I feel perhaps this is my opportunity to help somebody. I would love Yvonne to meet some of my family. I'm from a big family and I would love her to be able to be joining in that.

So hopefully one day that's going to happen sooner rather than later. And hopefully, you know, give her an opportunity perhaps with her further education so that She can reach her potential. So I'm sure she's got ambitions and they'd be lovely to have those ambitions fulfilled. And I think she wants to be a journalist. And wouldn't that be amazing? Anthea doesn't have Kieran's address

so she can't help James locate him. The month are all by and there is still no word from Kieran, the man who Yvonne believed was dead for her whole childhood. lawyer James has tried everything to track this guy down. Emails, social media messages, phone calls, court bailiffs have been sent to multiple addresses. He's even tried to contact Kieran via his mum. Kieran has now breached five court orders. James says that he can't recall any other case

in which he's had to go to such lengths to locate an individual. For months, I've been turning this over in my head. and I cannot think why this man would not respond to orders from the court. Yvonne is 18 now, he will not be liable for child maintenance. It just doesn't make sense. In February, I go to meet James back at the court in London. Today, he thinks the judge will issue a warrant for Kieran's arrest to force him to come to court.

As we're sitting outside the courtroom, from the corner of my eye, I see a familiar fear. face. Not somebody I've met, but somebody whose photo I've looked at many times. It's Kieran, Yvonne's dad. I can't believe it. Then suddenly, we're ushered into the courtroom, Kieran sits at the front and the judge addresses him. We have waited for you long enough, he says. At the judge's request, Kieran agrees to a confirmatory DNA test to prove that he's Devon's dad. Outside the courtroom, I approach him.

He seems polite, calm, with a gentle smile on his face. He shakes my hand and I introduce myself. I ask him how he's feeling now he might be confirmed as a father. His reply? Indifferent. He gives me his email address and I say I would love to talk to him. He nods. And then he's off.

Next to me, James is bursting with nervous energy. I cannot remember the last time I felt so flawed or so flabagascar, surprised as I did today's hearing, having geared up so much to get an arrest warrant out for this gentleman. I think I said to you before I'd eat my hat, if he showed up at court, my God, I did not expect him to be there. A week later, the results come in from the DNA test. They're positive.

Kieran is indeed Yvonne's father. James delivers the news to Yvonne on a video call. I'm just saying I'm kind of excited. I hope he does. I hope he does the right thing, Vaughn. There's no guarantee. Can I ask you something? It's completely up to you. It's your decision. It's completely up to you.

Would you like me to ask him whether he'd like to meet you? If you want to meet me, then I also want to meet him. Yeah, I'm ready. I find out that since Yvonne realized that this man is probably her dad, she has started using his surname at school, writing it on her notebooks. James emails Kieran to ask if he would like to meet his daughter. He replies saying he's undecided. Then, not long after, James receives another message from Kieran.

He says he doesn't want to meet Yvonne, for now at least. I email Kieran to see if he'll speak to me, but I get no reply. I remember the niggling feeling I had as we left Kenya about the risks of finding people's fathers, bringing them into contact with men who in many cases knowingly abandoned them. For Yvonne, Peter, Cathy and Maggie, some of the answers this project has found don't provide the closure they hoped for.

They beg more questions. But as we record this final episode, Yvonne is arranging to speak for the first time with her British relative, Anthea. This case has been unprecedented in the legal system in the UK. Twenty cases so far have gone to court and many more are in the pipeline. For the first time, evidence from commercial DNA databases has been used in the family courts in the UK. The ramifications of this could be far-reaching. It opens the door for the same method to be applied elsewhere

to locate fathers of abandoned children anywhere in the world and any man who has knowingly or unknowingly fathered the child might be found through these databases and could be made legally and financially responsible. So, James the lawyer in London, is now preparing for another set of court cases to demand child support for the children under 18. None of the fathers located so far have started to pay voluntarily.

This has been the most fulfilling case of my career and have worked with these children and the mothers. And honestly, they have been one of the most bright people have come across. In Nanuki, Kenyan lawyer Kelvin has set up a charity called Connecting Roads Kenya to support the children of British soldiers. Kelvin grew up near Nanyuki and has been coordinating the DNA project on the ground. We spoke to him on the veranda of our hotel,

military helicopters from the army base circling overhead. They've gone through that which most of us who never have gone through, even 10% of it. And they've survived and come out of it alive. What if the simply solution is that soldiers be banned from having any relationship, with women while they're on deployment. Having seen all the havoc and heartbreak these relationships have caused,

you might think Kelvin would agree, but he doesn't. This will be very racist in nature, because you are asking predominantly white soldiers to avoid black women because they may bring them trouble. And the only feasible solution is just to ensure that these men are held accountable when they father children while during their training duration in Kenya. As a Kenyan man, Kenyan black man,

do you sometimes get annoyed that so many women from your community are attracted to this white man that treat them like trash, some of them? Does that annoy you as a man? You know, when people fall in love, these are issues that even the law are not litigate. So some things defy logic.

They defy all reason. But I think these are the things that at the end of the day still make us human. That we sometimes want to love people who do not love us back, and there is no way we can stop loving them. Maybe that should be the final sentence. That might be the final sentence, that's not quite the final sentence.

A few days later, I'm with Kelvin at his office. And today we have three new clients who hopefully will be seeing their fathers in court. He's taking DNA samples and helping with paperwork. Sitting waiting is an 18-year-old man. He says his dad live with him and his mum until he was two and then never came back. It all sounds so familiar. What do you hope will happen?

Maybe if he wants me back, maybe it's okay. It really means that this is not just a past issue. It simply means that this is a continuous issue. I have a referral for a client who told me that she's three months pregnant of a British soldier's child. Once the child is born, Kelvin will take a DNA sample and try to find the father. This process seems to be never ending. It seems to really never end. It's a change. The end of one case signifies the beginning of another.

This has been episode 5 or 5 of Season 12 of World of Seas. Searching for Soldier Dad from the BBC World Service. World of Secrets, Searching for Soldier Dad, is a long-form audio production for the BBC World Service. It's presented by me, Ivana Davidovich. The series is produced and written by Josephine Cassily. The series editor is Matt Willis. Sound design and mix by Tom Brignall and Rod Farker. The script advisor is Lucy Proctor. Our production coordinator is Kate.

for BBC World Service podcasts. Anne Dixie is assistant editor, Katie Davis is senior podcast producer. The podcast commissioning editor is John Manel. We would like as many people as possible to hear our investigations, so please leave a rating and a review and do tell others about World of Secrets. She was the sister who went unnoticed. A daffodil might look plain next to a lily, but on its own there is much. Much to be admired.

Now, her greatest chapter is yet to come. The most important thing is to be yourself. From the world of Jane Austen's pride and prejudice comes a new Britbox original drama. Mary, you will flourish. Based on the best-selling novel, The Other Bennett Sister, now streaming only on Britbox. Watch for the free trial at Britbox.com.