Kenyans WERE tortured under our rule, says UK: Lawyer's admission as three Mau Mau survivors tell of horrorThought to be first public declaration by Government that brutality occurred
Admission comes as three elderly Kenyans seeks damages in the High Court
Could open floodgates for thousands of survivors to sue Britain for millions
By Sam Greenhill
PUBLISHED: 23:43 GMT, 17 July 2012 | UPDATED: 23:43 GMT, 17 July 2012
Ministers issued a dramatic confession yesterday that prisoners were tortured and sexually abused under British colonial rule in Kenya.
It is believed to be the first time the Government has made such a public declaration that atrocities were carried out ‘at the hands of the colonial administration’.
The admission came via a Whitehall lawyer addressing three elderly Kenyans who had gone to the High Court in London to demand damages and an apology.
Now in their 80s, one of them told the court how he had been brutally castrated in a British detention camp during the Mau Mau rebellion – Britain’s bloodiest colonial war.
If the trio win their case, it would open the door to up to 20,000 Kenyan survivors of the Mau Mau purge to sue Britain for millions of pounds, using no-win, no-fee lawyers.
The Foreign Office is contesting the case because it officially denies liability and maintains the Kenyans have left it too late to make claims.
Yesterday, each of the three claimants walked slowly to the witness stand to deliver their graphic testimony.
But before Guy Mansfield, the Foreign Office’s QC, cross-examined them, he said: ‘I wish to make it clear that the British Government does not dispute that each of you suffered torture and other ill-treatment at the hands of the colonial administration.’
Turning to Paulo Nzili, 85, who was castrated with a pair of pliers, he said: ‘I do not dispute with Mr Nzili that terrible things happened to him.’
Last night Martyn Day, senior partner at Leigh Day & Co, said: ‘Our clients are very pleased that the Government has accepted that they were tortured.’
The Mau Mau uprising began in 1952 to end British colonial rule. Britain initially dismissed reports of unrest, but later declared a state of emergency – introducing the death penalty for Mau Mau members. The violence ended in 1956, but the state of emergency was only revoked in 1960.
The then Colonial Secretary, Alan Lennox-Boyd, offered to resign over British troops’ actions during the rebellion. He was persuaded to stay in office by Harold Macmillan.
In July 1959, Enoch Powell attacked government policy over the Mau Mau. Speaking about the Hola camp, where 11 Mau Mau were killed after refusing to work, Mr Powell noted that some MPs had described the 11 as ‘sub-human’.
He told MPs: ‘I would say that it is a fearful doctrine, to stand in judgment on a fellow human being and to say, “because he was such-and-such, therefore the consequences which would otherwise flow from his death shall not flow”.’
A year ago, the three Kenyans were told by Mr Justice McCombe that they had ‘arguable cases in law’. He will now decide if a fair trial is possible. The Government says it is not.
Mr Mansfield said the Foreign Office faced ‘irredeemable difficulties’ defending itself because key witnesses had died. In a written submission, the FO declared: ‘After so long, it is simply impossible.’
Last night a FO spokesman said: ‘We understand the pain and grievance felt by those on all sides in the bloody events of the Kenya emergency period in Kenya.’
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