Kenyans win right to sue Britain for colonial 'abuses'

6 Oct 2012, 11:30 am   -   Source: AFP
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Kenyans Jane Muthoni Mara (l), Wambuga Wa Nyingi, and Paulo Muoka Nzili, celebrate the announcement of a legal decision in their case at Britain's High Court concerning Mau Mau veterans. (AAP)

Kenyans Jane Muthoni Mara (l), Wambuga Wa Nyingi, and Paulo Muoka Nzili, celebrate the announcement of a legal decision in their case at Britain's High Court concerning Mau Mau veterans. (AAP)

Three elderly Kenyans who claim they were tortured and sexually abused at the hands of their British colonial rulers during the 1950s Mau Mau uprising were given the green light to sue Britain.

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Three elderly Kenyans who claim they were tortured and sexually abused at the hands of their British colonial rulers during the 1950s Mau Mau uprising were on Friday given the green light to sue Britain.
  
The British government immediately said it would appeal the High Court judgement.
  
The court had heard allegations in July that Paulo Muoka Nzili, Wambugu Wa Nyingi and Jane Muthoni Mara were subjected to torture and sexual mutilation.
  
The trio's lawyers said Nzili was castrated, Nyingi severely beaten and Mara subjected to appalling sexual abuse in detention camps during the Mau Mau rebellion.
  
Nyingi was caught up in beatings that led to the deaths of 11 men at the Hola camp in 1959, an incident now known as the "Hola Massacre".
  
A fourth claimant, Susan Ngondi, has died since legal proceedings began.
  
High Court judge Richard McCombe ruled on Friday that "a fair trial on this part of the case does remain possible.
  
"I am justified in concluding that the available documentary base is very substantial indeed and capable of giving a very full picture of what was going on in government and military circles in both London and Kenya during the 'emergency'," he said.
  
Supporters of the Kenyans wept when they heard the judgement, although the claimants themselves were not in court.
  
In the Kenyan capital Nairobi, around 150 Mau Mau veterans gathered at the country's Human Rights Commission, singing and shouting as the news broke.
  
Some of the now frail and elderly veterans -- men and women -- performed a shuffling celebration dance.
  
"This a great moment that we feel in our hearts, our souls, our bodies, because justice has been done in England," said Gitu Wa Kahengeri, spokesman for the Mau Mau War Veterans Association.
  
Atsango Chesoni, Kenya Human Rights Commission executive director, also welcomed the ruling.
  
"When we started to support this process in 2009 we did not imagine we could have got so far," she said.
  
In London, Martyn Day, of the Leigh Day and Co law firm which has led the veterans' campaign, called it a "massive, massive decision" but urged the government to act quickly as his elderly clients "won't last for much longer".
  
"It's been a long battle," he told AFP outside the court. "Many times I thought we'd never reach this point."
  
The British government accepts that British forces tortured detainees but said it was "disappointed" with the judgment.
  
It warned of "potentially significant and far-reaching legal implications" but stressed Britain's ties with Kenya "remain strong and deep."
  
The case will have access to an archive of 8,000 secret files that were sent back to Britain after Kenya became independent in 1963.
  
London had initially argued that all liabilities were transferred to the new rulers of Kenya when the east African country was granted independence.
  
But in 2011, a High Court judge ruled the claimants did have a valid case.
  
The government then claimed too much time had elapsed since the crimes, but the judge concluded on Friday these concerns were "more illusory than real."
  
The Kenyans are demanding an apology and the establishment of a welfare fund to ensure that around 1,000 surviving former detainees can have some dignity in their old age.
  
At least 10,000 people died during the 1952-1960 Mau Mau uprising, with some sources giving far higher estimates.
  
Tens of thousands were detained, including US President Barack Obama's grandfather.
  
In his judgement, McCombe explained that the defendants' poor English, lack of legal experience and financial situation explained why it had taken so long for them to make their case.
  
Only when the Kenya Human Rights Commission contacted them in 2006 did the applicants realise they could take action.
  
In one document sent in 1957, an official in charge of detainees told a police commissioner how prisoners were "beaten up" and made to run around in circles with a bucket of stones on their head if they refused to swear an oath.
  

Kenya , Britain , Abuse

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