Veterans of the 1950s Mau Mau rebellion against British colonial rule in Kenya said on Sunday that they plan to seek compensation for atrocities committed by British soldiers, Kenyan television
reported.
”We plan to sue the British government so that we can be compensated for the deaths, harm and injuries it caused us,” their leader Kuria Nguru was quoted as saying by Nation TV, an independent station.
Nguru was speaking at a memorial service for World War II dead at a cemetery for unknown soldiers in Ngong township in the Rift Valley district of Kajiado.
British High Commissioner to Kenya Edward Clay, was
present at the event and laid a wreath.
Nguru said Mau Mau fighters had suffered in British detention camps, and some had permanent deformations as a result of torture and other atrocities committed by British soldiers or local home guards employed by the colonial government during the 1954-63 independence war.
In July, Britain paid 4,5-million pounds (about seven million euros) to more than 200 Samburu and Maasai tribesmen for a trail of deaths and injuries caused by ordnance left behind by the British army after military training exercises in Kenya. – Sapa-AFP