Ivana Davidovic

Hi, I'm Ivana Davidovic, the host of the latest season of World of Secrets, the BBC's Global Investigations podcast. I thought you might like to listen to Searching for Soldier Dad, a series that tells you the story of DNA detectives tracking down the British soldiers who fathered children in Kenya and then disappeared. The mothers and children were left without support. We joined the quest for justice.

Here's episode one. To hear more, search World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts. When Kathy is a little kid, she sees what's there and barely notices what's absent. Her mum is the centre of her world. The thought of a dad doesn't even cross her mind.

I've never really had like a dad, so to know what that feeling is, to actually miss. You can't miss something that you've never had. Then one day, there is an event at her primary school, and her mum Maggie attends. Other parents are coming, you know, father and mother, and I was just me. It's in this moment, watching her classmates, that a question forms in Kathy's mind.

Maggie says that when she was growing up, Nanuki was known as British Town. That's because it's home to an army base.

Kathy on vaikea ajatella isänsä. Se on kuin katastrofi. Kun kuvia kristallisee, se pysyy. Mutta yksi asia on selkeä. Hän oli sotilas. Hero. Kun ystäviä kysyvät hänestä, hän kertoo, että isäni oli sotilas ja hän kuoli sotilassa. Tämä tarina tulee osa Kathy-tarinaa, kun hän on 10-vuotias.

All the stories Kathy had told herself about him evaporate. Questions tumble through her mind. If he's alive, then where is he? Why did he leave? With her mum's encouragement, 10-year-old Kathy opens a Facebook account and begins to write a message.

Then she hits send. There's nothing more she can do but wait for a reply. It's a wait that stretches from days to weeks and then to years. She feels completely isolated, but I've discovered she's far from alone.

This moment, as she stares in disbelief at her dad's Facebook profile, is the beginning of a nine-year quest to get answers. Her journey will put her on a path she never thought possible. It will bring her into contact with lawyers and DNA detectives from across the world. She'll discover that her story is part of a bigger pattern, one whose implications go to the very highest levels of power.

This is World of Secrets, season 12. Searching for Soldier Dad, a BBC World Service investigation. I'm Ivana Davidovic, a BBC journalist. For the past two years I've been following a cutting edge project to locate absentee military fathers and expose a scandal that has hidden in plain sight for decades. Episode 1, Love Story.

I first meet Maggie and her daughter Kathy in December 24 in their hometown of Nanuki. We approach the town on a wide dusty highway. It's at the base of Mount Kenya, Africa's second highest mountain. I can see the outline of its jagged snow-capped peak through the clouds in the distance.

To one side of the road is a big yellow sign. It's stained by traffic fumes and surrounded by people posing for photos. On the sign there is a black silhouette of the African continent, telling us that we're bang on the equator. I might be every day for you, but I'm very far from equator. So for me this is very exciting.

As we drive into the center, shopping malls flank the road. Side streets bustle with market stalls piled high with vegetables. Motorcycle taxis are touting for business. We stop at a mall for lunch. And suddenly I feel like I've stepped out of Kenya. There is an American fast food chain where almost every customer is a British soldier, most in uniform.

I'm struck by how young some of them look in their bulky military uniforms, eating fries out of paper bags and sipping from large soft drink cups.

British military's fingerprints are all over this region. The army base outside of Nanuki is their biggest in Africa. The British army set up training camps here after Kenya gained independence from the British in the 60s. It's known as Batuk, or the British Army Training Unit Kenya. And every year, around 5,000 personnel pass through it. The combination of sandy and mountainous terrain is the perfect environment to train for combat overseas.

Yhdysvaltojen kanssa tulee rahaa. Kaupungin kaupungin paikoilla on hienoja kokemuksia, paikoja ja klubit, joissa huomasin, että vihreät naiset ja usein nuorempia, glamourisempia Kenian naisia ovat yleensä tapahtumassa.

Nanuki on ollut keskellä skandalista ja poliittisesta kontroversiasta.

Meidän tarina tapahtuu näin. Kun Kathy löysi, että isäni oli elämässä, hän oli täyttänyt kysymyksiä. Ensimmäinen, johon hän tuli, oli isänsä, Maggie, joka kertoi hänelle perustuksen. Maggie ottaa minut takaisin paikalle, johon kaikki alkoi. Restaurantissa, yhdellä maailmalla, Manukiin.

Maggie on vihreää rintaa ja rintaa. Hän näyttää nuorempaa kuin 48-vuotiaana. Hän laulaa helposti, mutta hänellä on tunne vaarallisuudesta. Oletko menossa? Voi myöntä. Katsotaan, että olemme menossa. Katsotaan, että olemme menossa.

Maggi on 26-vuotias. Hän työskentelee ympäristössä ympäristössä. Kun on loppupuoli, hän tuntuu kestävän ystävänsä. Naniuki ei ole kovin lähellä maata, mutta se näyttää ympäristöstä. Tiki-tyyli ja kenian musiikki näyttävät ääntä ääntä.

Suomalaisessa puulutapassa viisi valkoisia miltäryhtiöllä yksilöitä kohdattiin Kenian naisia. Vaikka on yleistä nähdä sotilaita Britannian miltäryhtiöllä, Maggie ei ole koskaan puhunut niistä. Meidän suurin osa, jotka eivät osallistuneet niihin, on tärkeitä niistä. Maggie sanoo, että nainen on yhdessä naisista. Me olimme kutsuneet heitä prostituutiksi, ja he olivat kutsuneet meitä työpaikalla. Työpaikalla naiset ja seksikäytäriä.