Mau Mau veterans to sue Britain

Another group of Mau Mau veterans plans to go to court seeking compensation from the British Government over atrocities during the war of independence.

But this time round, thousands of the war survivors will travel to London if a British law firm, Ashton Fox Solicitors Limited, establishes a case.

“If the case goes to full trial, we shall have to transport thousands of people to London at our own expense,” Mr Matthew Stokes, a director of the law firm, told the Nation in Nakuru on Tuesday.

Mr Stokes had visited the area to witness recording of statements by the former freedom fighters.

Recording statements

Staff from two Kenyan law firms — Griffin Legal and Rabala and Company Advocates, which have partnered with Ashton — have been recording statements since October.

After spending their day in Nakuru with the war veterans, Mr Stokes and his teams are scheduled to visit Nyandarua on Wednesday for a similar mission.

Another British law firm, Leigh Day and Company, through one of its partners, Mr Martin Day, had filed a similar suit.

But only five survivors of the country’s independence war were involved in the case where they sought compensation for human rights abuses during the 1950s and early 1960s when the colonial government declared a State of Emergency in Kenya.

The idea of this emergency was to weaken the Mau Mau fighters who had waged a guerrilla war against the colonialists. (READ: Mau Mau and the barbaric face of the British empire)

Most of the fighters were either detained without trial or jailed. During that period, they were subjected to widespread acts of brutality, arbitrary killings and other inhuman and degrading treatment.

In the suit that Mr Day filed, the High Court ruled that there was clearly an arguable case against the British Government.

But the court had been urged to strike out the suit on the grounds that the Kenyan Government should be held responsible after it succeeded the colonial governance.

Ashton is now relying on the outcome of Mr Day’s case where the five complainants are waiting to see if they will be compensated. The British Government is also expected to apologise to them.

If the five complainants win their case, Mr Stokes said, they will immediately seek compensation for those who have recorded statements with his law firm.

According to him, the suit may take another three years or more to conclude, which has not gone down well with the former freedom fighters.

They said some of them may not be alive by that time since they are aged, however Mr Stokes said since they were including their next of kin, there was no cause for alarm.

He added that Ashton would not require any fees from them.