Five Kenyans who are mounting a test case in London suffered “unspeakable acts of torture and abuse” at the hand of British colonial officials, their lawyer said today.
The four surviving claimants, all in their 70s and 80s, arrived at the High Court this morning after flying in from their homes in Kenya to give evidence before Mr Justice McCombe.
Leigh Day & Co, the men’s lawyers, claim that the four representative lead cases were victims of grave acts of torture — including castration and severe sexual assault — by British officials in camps during the Mau Mau Uprising between 1952 and 1961.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), which denies all liability, wants the judge to “strike out” the test case on the basis that the Kenyan Government is legally responsible for any abuses as all liabilities were transferred to the Kenyan Republic upon independence in 1963.
Opening for the FCO, Robert Jay QC said that the claimants suffered “appalling” acts but described their case as “built on inference”.
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The court also heard details of the torture and beatings allegedly suffered by the claimants while they were under detention during the uprising.
One, Mr Ndiku Mutua, claims he was “beaten by white and black police … and then he was castrated”, Mr Jay said.
Mr Nzili, another of the men, also says he was castrated after being taken to a prison camp while Mr Wambugu Wa Nyingi says he suffered multiple beatings at a number of different camps and was threatened with hanging.
On one occasion, in March 1959, a group of men, including Mr Nyingi, were clubbed. Eleven of the men died and he was beaten unconscious and hospitalised.
Mrs Jane Nuthona Mara, the only surviving woman of the group, says she suffered “appalling sexual abuse”, Mr Jay said.
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Earlier today, the four living claimants flanked Martyn Day, their solicitor, as he gave a statement on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice: “This case is not about reopening old wounds. It is about individuals who are alive and who have endured terrible suffering because of the policies of a previous British Government.”
He said that the men sought a formal apology “and a welfare fund that would enable them to see out their years with some element of dignity”.
He went on: “It has taken years for the full facts to come to light as a result of recent exhaustive historical research by professors at Oxford and Harvard, which revealed for the first time the scale and the brutality of the abuse against detainees and the fact that the paper trail went all the way up to the Colonial Secretary in London.
“They were subjected to unspeakable acts of torture and abuse at the hands of British officials in the 1950s and early 1960s, including castration, sexual abuse and repeated beatings.”
The men’s claims are being supported by the Kenyan Government and the Kenya Human Rights Commission which has said that 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed during the uprising, with 160,000 detained.
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The hearing is expected to last at least eight days.