Kenyans suing UK over torture to give evidence

LONDON (Reuters) – Five Kenyans accusing the British government of torture during an uprising against the former colonial power more than 50 years ago will give evidence to Britain’s High Court on Wednesday, their lawyers said.

The three men and two women say they suffered castration, sexual abuse and severe beatings in detention camps administered by the British government and now want an apology and financial compensation.

A suit was filed on their behalf by the law firm Leigh, Day & Co at the High Court in London in 2009.

“In this landmark case, the claimants, who are in their 70s and 80s, will travel 4,000 miles (6,400 km) from rural Kenya to give evidence at the High Court in London starting on 6th April 2011,” the law firm said on its website.

Britain’s Times newspaper said in its Tuesday edition that 300 boxes of documents showing efforts by Britain to put down insurgency were discovered this year when the High Court ordered the government to produce all relevant evidence.

It said the missing material — more than 1,500 files thought to have been lost or destroyed — was removed from Kenya in 1963 and brought to Britain days before Kenya’s declaration of independence as officials tried to remove evidence that “might embarrass Her Majesty’s Government”.

Historians estimate as many as 150,000 suspected members of the Mau Mau, a resistance movement launched by Kenyan tribes, were detained without trial between 1952 and 1960 and placed in British-administrated camps.

Lawyers for the five Kenyans hope the suit, if it is successful, will lead to a programme of reparations for thousands of others who human rights officials believe were victims of British torture during colonial rule.

The British Foreign Office has said it was aware of the action and welcomed an open debate but did not accept the compensation claims and would contest them on questions around liability and limitations.

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