UK says government 'not liable' for torture of the Mau Maus

[News_Editor]

UK says government 'not liable' for torture of the Mau Maus

2011-04-08 02:00:07 GMT+7 (ICT)

LONDON (BNO NEWS) -- Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Thursday tried to convince the High Court in London to throw out a case brought by Kenyans against colonial abuses during the Mau Mau rebellion, the BBC reported.

Four Kenyans, aged in their 70s and 80s, claim they were assaulted between 1952 and 1961 by British colonial officers in detention camps. The Foreign Office said the government cannot be held legally liable for the abuses since Kenya had its own legal colonial government, which was responsible for the camps.

The claimants have flown from their homes in rural Kenya to appear in court and press their claim that they suffered acts of torture, including castration and sexual assault, during the rebellion against British colonial rule. Ndiku Mutua, 78, told the BBC his castration had affected his "psychological being".

"Being a man without a family, without a wife, is so shameful and I live under shame even with my peers," he said.

Standing with his clients, solicitor Martyn Day said they were primarily seeking an apology.

"They were subjected to unspeakable acts of torture and abuse at the hands of British officials in the 1950s and 1960s, including castrations, sexual abuse and repeated beatings," Day said.

"The treatment they endured has left them all with devastating and lifelong injuries. There is no doubt that endemic torture took place in Kenya before independence," he added.

The armed Mau Mau movement began in central Kenya during the 1950s with the aim of getting back land seized by British colonial authorities. The Kenya Human Rights Commission has said 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed during the crackdown, and 160,000 were detained in appalling conditions.

An official report in 1961 determined that more than 11,000 Africans, most of them civilians, and 32 white settlers died during that period.

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