Joseph Ngugi
24 June 2009
London — Own up, apologise and pay up for the sins committed by your predecessors.
This is the message a group of Mau Mau war veterans presented on Wednesday when they walked into British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office.
And they are claiming £300,000 (Sh35 million) each for the pain they suffered during their incarceration by British colonialists. They also want the British government to admit that what they did was wrong and inhumane.
"Sir, this is not a case about colonialism or politics. It is about a group of people who were tortured and who struggle to live with the consequences of that torture to this day. We seek recognition of the historic wrong which was done to us and an apology from the British Government," the group said in its plea.
In their case filed on Tuesday at the Royal Court of Justice, they also want the British government to order an inquiry into the number of elderly Kenyans living with effects of ill treatment by the British colonial regime and establish a financial scheme to help them and their families.
Tell the world
The veterans invited Mr Brown to Kenya to meet them and their families. In a two-page petition, the war veterans said that in their 70s and 80s, they had travelled to London to tell the world of the torture and trauma they went through at the hands of the British.
They said that during the struggle for Kenya's independence in the 1950s and 1960s, they were detained, tortured and moved from one detention camp to another. They said that at no time were they subjected to the due process of law through the courts.
But the British government will challenge the case, saying that Mau Mau issues cannot be tackled now because the veterans had waited too long to lodge their claims, which were now barred under the statute of limitations.
The war veterans said that they wanted to see the issue resolved while they were still alive. The case is likely to be heard in October 2009.
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