KENYA: Kenyans tortured by British colonial forces want the UK government to apologise, to fund welfare benefits and to consider as hero's all those victims of torture in addition to compensation payments

Record ID: 362380

  • Title: KENYA: Kenyans tortured by British colonial forces want the UK government to apologise, to fund welfare benefits and to consider as hero's all those victims of torture in addition to compensation payments
  • Date: 6th October 2012
  • Summary: SLATE INFORMATION
  • Embargoed: 21st October 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Legal System,Conflict,History,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAE353CP851CNUOJKQCRE9MLU8Q
  • Story Text: Three elderly Kenyans tortured by British colonial forces were told they can sue Britain, in a London court judgement likely to encourage other claims dating back to the days of the British Empire.
    The government, which had tried for three years to block their legal action, said on Friday (October 5) it planned to appeal, a move which the veterans described as an 'immoral' tactic intended to delay proceedings until all the torture victims die of old age.
    Paulo Nzili, 85, Wambugu Wa Nyingi, 84, and Jane Muthoni Mara, who is 73, suffered castration, rape and beatings while in detention in the 1950s during a crackdown by British forces and their Kenyan allies on the Mau Mau movement fighting for land and freedom.
    As the news filtered through that the UK government would appeal the decision, Mau Mau veterans appealed to the authorities to stop using legal technicalities to fight the case and, instead, negotiate a settlement as soon as possible as the claimants were frail and elderly.
    "We made the point repeatedly that it looks extremely immoral for her majesties' government which is not contesting and has in fact it has admitted that atrocities were committed, torture was committed that they have agreed and for them to continue relying on technicalities, be well aware that the majority of this victims are in their eighties, late eighties and many of them live in squalid poverty that many of them are not even able to afford health care in their old age, what could be more despicable, what could be more immoral than her majesties' government to continue as it were to buy time simply to wait for all these veterans to die one by one before tasting justice," said Paul Muite, a lawyer representing the Mau Mau veterans.
    Around 40 elderly Mau Mau veterans and their children screamed, ululated and hugged each other when the news of the verdict reached them. They then performed a traditional dance in the mid-day heat, thanking God for their victory and weeping.
    Now in their 70s and 80s, the claimants suffered castration, rape and beatings while in detention during a ruthless crackdown by British forces and their Kenyan allies on rebels from the Mau Mau movement fighting for land and freedom.
    The trio want Britain to apologise and to fund welfare benefits for Kenyan victims of torture by colonial forces.
    "That apart from damages, apart from compensation one of the objectives in bringing this case was for these veterans to be acknowledged as hero's, they were fighting for justice so that recognition is needed, like an apology from her majesties' government to acknowledge what they did was wrong and to apologise," Muite added.
    The events took place during the so-called Kenyan "Emergency" of 1952-61, during which fighters from the Mau Mau movement attacked British targets, causing panic among white settlers and alarming the government in London.
    Tens of thousands of rebels were killed by colonial forces and an estimated 150,000 Kenyans, many of them unconnected to the Mau Mau, were held in detention camps likened by a leading historian of the period to Soviet gulag labour camps.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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