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UK-Kenya: Mau Mau veterans seek compensation

01 August 2006

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Six victims of Britain's 1950s colonial "counter-insurgency" war in Kenya lodged a formal claim for compensation against the UK government in October. Their lawyers said that they will give the government four months to respond before taking the case to the High Court. The men allege that they were subjected to inhumane treatment in British-run detention camps. Legal papers said that Britain was responsible for atrocities carried out during its rule of the west African country. British war crimes in Kenya (and further afield) are well documented by historians of the period, whether directly through torture and physical beatings or through the use of "pseudo-gangs" of ex-guerillas, as advocated by Kitson in his book, Low Intensity Operations. The Kenya Human Rights Commission has estimated that 160,000 Kenyans were detained in appalling conditions and over 90,000 people were executed, tortured or maimed over the course of the British military operation. Claims are being pursued in Kenya by 2,000 more former Mau Mau detainees.

A spokesman for the British embassy in Kenya told the Independent newspaper that all claims of government responsibility passed to the Kenyan government at independence. Mucheke Kioru detained during the brutal Operation Anvil offensive to wipe out the Mau Mau on 1954, is one of the ten man who are seeking compensation through the UK court. He said that he was tortured, starved and beaten while detained in a British interrogation centre after being caught smuggling food and weapons to rebels fighting for independence. The mens' solicitor, Martyn Day, said: "It is right that the British government should accept responsibility for the devastation of these Kenyan lives and should pay compensation for what they went through." British officials have indicated that they will contest the case vigorously, no doubt fearful that it would open the floodgates for thousands more claims of torture and abuse carried out under the colonial regime.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission has a website: http://www.khrc.or.ke/news.asp?ID=31; Independent 26.9.06

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