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At least 10,000 people died during the 1952-1960 Mau Mau insurgency against British colonial rule/AFP-File

Kenya

Thousands of Kenyans to sue Britain over Mau Mau treatment

The test case trio, Paulo Muoka Nzili, Wambugu Wa Nyingi and Jane Muthoni Mara, were subjected to torture and sexual mutilation, the London court heard.

Many of those listed by lawyers are understood not to have actually carried a gun but to have been maltreated after they were accused of feeding or supplying the guerrillas.

The guerrilla fighters – often with dread-locked hair and wearing animal skins as clothes – terrorised colonial communities. Tens of thousands were detained.

London had initially argued that all liabilities were transferred to the new rulers of Kenya when the east African country was granted independence in 1963, but a court later ruled the claimants did have a valid case.

While the rise of the Mau Mau is now often seen as a key step towards Kenya’s independence, it also created bitter divisions within communities, with some joining the fighters and others serving the colonial power.

Mboya also said that UK firm Tandem Law supplied the LSK with a claim form for the High Court of Justice Queens Bench Division Case No. 13X02162.

“They also sent us pleadings (legal documents) relating to the said Case No. 13X02162 involving Eloise Mukami Kimathi and Others Versus The Foreign and Commonwealth Office,” Mboya added.

Tandem Law (UK) is in collaboration with local law firms Miller & Company Advocates and PK Kamau and Company Advocates.

He said that the KHRC – through Leigh Day – filed Case Number HQ09X02666 at the English High Court for compensation due to torture and other inhumane acts caused by officials and agents of the British Government during the colonial period in Kenya.

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