Mau Mau seek damages over British torture

The British Government will on June 23 be issued with a claim for torturing Kenyans for a decade.
A representative of Leigh, Day law firm, Mr Dan Leader was in Nairobi Sunday and addressed a news conference attended by lawyer Paul Muite, Mr George Morara of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and Mau Mau War Veterans Association members led by chairman Gitu Kahengeri.

Mau Mau veterans Katana Kalume (left) and Mr Joseph Karisa during a Press conference in Nairobi, on Sunday. [PHOTO: ANDREW KILONZI/ STANDARD]

Detailing how the British Government perpetrated atrocities against Kenyans between 1950 and 1960, the leader of the London-based law firm said he had been instructed by the KHRC to issue a claim for compensation against the British government on behalf of the Mau Mau War veterans.
Mr Morara says the commission has documented 40 cases of castration, sexual abuses and unlawful detention carried out by officers of the British government. In recent years, following exhaustive research, it has become clear the torture and inhuman treatment of Kenyans during the emergency period were a result of policies sanctioned from the highest levels of government in London.
"As President Barack Obama recently said, during the Second World War, Winston Churchill was adamant that Britain does not torture people even when it seemed expedient to do so," Leader said.
Indeed, Obama’s grandfather, Onyango Obama, was a victim of the crackdown on Mau Mau when he was detained in mid-1950s.
Self respect
Though it has taken long, Mr Muite said the Mau Mau issue will never go away.
The veterans, he said, must be assisted into regaining their self-respect and dignity and the Britain Government should pay for what they did to them.
It has taken long to secure justice because the movement had been illegal in Kenya for 51 years. It was banned in 1952, but President Kibaki lifted the ban in 2003.
After a campaign and the revelation of the massacre of eleven Kenyans at the Hola Detention Camp that Britain was forced to close detention camps and stop barbaric practices when dealing with freedom fighters.
Leader says he has the opportunity to make the British government come to terms with this stain on British history and apologise to the Kenyan people. 
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