[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Reparations demands for Mau Mau

[Patrick Bond]

(Death stats: British "killed thousands of Africans, and imprisoned tens 
of thousands, before the end of the rebellion in 1959. Britain also 
hanged about 1,000 people as rebels although many of them never bore 
arms. The government put the final death toll at 11,000 Kenyans compared 
with 32 white settlers and about 200 soldiers and police. Recent 
research suggests up to 100,000 Kenyans died, many through torture, 
starvation and neglect in the British prison camps. The Mau Mau killed 
more than 2,000 Africans they accused of collaboration.")

Mau Mau veterans to sue Britain over torture and illegal killings in
Kenya

· Action alleges human rights abuses in 1950s
· Case runs risk of reviving internal divisions

Chris McGreal in Nairobi
Friday October 6, 2006
The Guardian

An ageing group of former Mau Mau insurgents will launch a legal action
in Britain next week accusing the army and colonial authorities of
torturing or illegally killing thousands of Kenyans during the rebellion
for independence 50 years ago.

Lawyers acting for Mau Mau veterans say they will serve notice on the
Foreign Office of an intent to seek compensation for human rights abuses
for a group of about 10 Kenyans, seen as a test case.

The claimants have given accounts of rape, systematic and prolonged
beatings and other physical tortures that caused permanent injury and
starvation as part of a British policy to break the rebellion. Some also
witnessed killings.

If the case comes to court it is likely to divide Kenya by highlighting
the part played in suppressing the Mau Mau by Kenyans who went on to
hold senior government posts, and because insurgents killed many more
black Kenyans than white settlers.

The claimants say they were held for years in detention camps during the
seven years after Britain declared the "Kenya emergency" in 1952.

Jane Muthoni Mara was 15 when she was arrested for supplying the Mau Mau
with food. She says a white officer ordered her torture, carried out by
a black soldier who shoved a bottle into her vagina to force her to
reveal the whereabouts of her brother, a member of the Mau Mau.

"There was a [Kenyan soldier] called Edward. He filled the bottle with
hot water and then pushed it into my private parts with his foot. I
screamed and screamed," she said. "Other women held at the camp were
raped the same way. I've never forgotten it."

Another former detainee, M'Mucheke Mucheke Kioru, says he was beaten
senseless on several occasions by an officer. "He ordered me to lie down
with my face down and severely beat me all over my back from the lower
spinal cord. I was beaten until sperms were coming out of my penis like
a stream. I believe this is when I lost the ability to have children."

The Kenyan Human Rights Commission, which is backing the legal claim,
says about 160,000 people were held in dire conditions and tens of
thousands were tortured to get them to renounce their oath to the Mau
Mau.

The camps were set up in response to the brutal killings of white
settlers, including women and children, by the Mau Mau. After the
emergency was lifted in 1961 an official report determined that 32
whites were killed while more than 11,000 Africans died, many of them
civilians. Others put the toll much higher.

Lawyers for the claimants are likely to call as a witness the American
academic Caroline Elkins, whose acclaimed book Britain's Gulag estimates
that up to 100,000 Kenyans died of torture, abuse and neglect in the
British camps.

The British authorities also hanged hundreds of Mau Mau members for
offences other than killing, such as illegal possession of arms or
associating with people illegally carrying weapons.

Martyn Day, the British lawyer representing the former detainees, said
torture was not carried out by a few rogue soldiers, but as a policy.
"In torturing people under their control, or allowing torture to take
place, the British were negligent, they committed assault, they breached
the European convention on human rights that was in effect at the time
and they caused very severe suffering," he said.

A spokeswoman for the British high commission in Nairobi, Charley
Williams, said the government would contest the lawsuit. "If and when
legal proceedings are brought forward we would defend them vigorously on
two grounds. First, all claims and responsibilities pass to the Kenyan
government on independence, and second, after 50 years or so it would be
impossible for there to be a fair trial of the issues," she said.

Mr Day conceded it would not be an easy case to win. "It's a tough case,
no question about it, because of the length of time that has passed and
because the British government will be worried about the precedent it
will set," he said.

"But it's a case that absolutely has to be brought. It's very important
for the victims to have a historic acknowledgement by the British
government that what it did was very wrong."

Backstory

The Mau Mau rebellion against British rule during the 1950s was led in
part by Kenyans who served under the British flag in the second world
war and returned trained to fight and with a burning sense of grievance
at colonial rule. The organisation was dominated by the Kikuyu who had
suffered more than most Kenyans from the land grabbing by white
settlers. The Mau Mau's killing of settlers, including women and
children, at the end of 1952 and early 1953 led to its vilification in
Britain as a group of savages and terrorists. But Britain's response
proved no less barbaric. Its forces killed thousands of Africans, and
imprisoned tens of thousands, before the end of the rebellion in 1959.
Britain also hanged about 1,000 people as rebels although many of them
never bore arms. The government put the final death toll at 11,000
Kenyans compared with 32 white settlers and about 200 soldiers and
police. Recent research suggests up to 100,000 Kenyans died, many
through torture, starvation and neglect in the British prison camps. The
Mau Mau killed more than 2,000 Africans they accused of collaboration.