21 July 2011 Last updated at 11:14
Mau Mau Kenyans allowed to sue UK government
Four elderly Kenyans have been given permission to take legal action
over alleged British colonial atrocities committed during the Mau Mau
uprising.
The High Court ruled they could sue over alleged torture by the
British authorities in the 1950s and 1960s.
Mr Justice McCombe said the claimants had an "arguable case" but it
would be for a full trial to decide.
It comes as Foreign Office documents released in May showed that the
alleged abuse was "sort of a guilty secret".
The documents give further details of what ministers in London knew
about how the colony was attempting to crush the rebellion that paved
the way to independence.
They contain reports of British officers implicated in atrocities,
including the murder of suspected Mau Mau rebels.
'Arguable cases'
The test case claimants, Ndiku Mutwiwa Mutua, Paulo Muoka Nzili,
Wambugu Wa Nyingi and Jane Muthoni Mara, who are in their 70s and 80s,
say the documents form a paper trail proving that London knew about
and approved torture and abuse in Kenya.
They say they were systematically abused and tortured in special camps
that had been set up to crush the Mau Mau rebellion against British
rule, and want compensation from the government.
At an earlier hearing the judge was told that Mr Mutua and Mr Nzili
had been castrated, Mr Nyingi was beaten unconscious in an incident in
which 11 men were clubbed to death, and Mrs Mara had been subjected to
appalling sexual abuse.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) argued that it could not be
liable because it happened outside of the UK and that
Kenya had its own legal colonial government, which was responsible for
the camps.
But the judge rejected the strike-out application saying: "I have not
found that there was systematic torture nor, if there was, the UK
government is liable.
"I have simply decided that these claimants have arguable cases in law.
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