Kenyans permitted to take legal action over alleged British atrocities

Summary of story from BBCNews, store July 21, medical 2011

Four elderly Kenyans have been given permission to take legal action over alleged atrocities committed during the Mau Mau uprising against the British colonial authorities in Kenya in the 1950s and 1960s.

Mr Justice McCombe, order at the High Court in London, said the claimants had an “arguable case” but it would be for a full trial to decide.

The test case claimants, Jane Muthoni Mara, Ndiku Mutwiwa Mutua, Paulo Muoka Nzili, and Wambugu Wa Nyingi are in their 70s and 80s.

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 they want compensation from the British 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 Ms Mara had been subjected to appalling sexual abuse (see WVoN story).

Foreign Office documents released in May showed that the alleged abuse was “sort of a guilty secret”.