KENYA: UK lawyer visits to tighten Mau Mau case

By LILLIAN ONYANGO

A group of Mau Mau war veterans have to come to Nairobi from time to time, many kilometres away from the comfort of their villages, to attend meetings concerning their case against the British Government.

They want the British Government to pay for the torture they suffered in the hands of its officials during the colonial rule.

Last week’s visit to Nairobi was one rather unusual for the senior citizens. This time they got to meet and shake hands with the British lawyer who is representing them in their case filed in London.

Counsel Dan Leader interacted with the group with ease. He speaks some Swahili.

“I speak enough Swahili to get me a glass of water and to make them laugh,” he told the Sunday Nation.

Mr Leader, who lived in Mombasa in 2000-2001 where he picked up the language, was on a special mission in the country.

The lawyer is a senior partner at Leigh Day and Company in London, which has been working with the Kenya Human Rights Commission and the Mau Mau War Veterans Association 2009 on the suit.

“We have in the country now a team of 15 lawyers who are working with KHRC and the MMWVA, travelling from district to district interviewing each person who claims to have suffered abuse,” Mr Leader said.

He explained that the exercise is of great importance to the team which has now won two very historic judgments in the High Court in London.

“It is very important that we have complete confidence in the victim group that is being presented to us, which is why we are interviewing each person carefully ourselves,” he said. “This was a legal victory which no one thought was possible for us to win.”

In October, the court ruled that the British Government must answer for the torture of thousands of Kenyans.

“This is a historic moment for the victims who have lived with the trauma of what they went through for decades and finally the world knows what really happened during the Kenya Emergency,” the lawyer with an inclination for international human rights said.

The successful result of the test case of three people, representative of the claimants, has encouraged the team to cast their net wider and seek out more people who suffered under the colonial rule.

However, not just any grey haired person who lived during those times will qualify.

Mr Leader said the visits to the districts are guided by a list of 40,280 people registered under MMWVA which were created in 2010 as “we cannot open up the list to all the pensioners in Kenya, that is a lot of people.”

“And the way we are doing this is that we have a detailed questionnaire which asks them to list the areas the individuals were detained in, in detail and to explain the nature of the abuse they were subjected to, if any,” Mr Leader explained, adding that they will now be taking cases of thousands of people to the court.

Since the case began, a number of organisations have sprung up claiming to represent Mau Mau veterans and another law firm from Britain – Tandem Law – interviewing potential claimants. Mr Leader distanced his law firm from those other groups.

Reaching out

The vetting process has seen them turn down a quarter of the 4,000 cases they have so far interviewed. The team of lawyers has so far been to Kiambu and are currently in Nyeri. Ukambani and Embu and Meru will be their next destination.

“We want to make sure that wherever genuine Mau Mau can be found, we will get to them,” said KHRC senior programmes officer George Morara.

Also, instructions from the High Court are that the case will proceed on living victims. Therefore, should a claimant die before the case is concluded, their family cannot make the claim in their place.

The British Government has lodged an appeal in the case but Mr Leader is confident of victory.

“The British Government will have to ask itself how it can go around the world lecturing countries like Syria and Zimbabwe when it is unwilling to give redress to people who were tortured by the British,” he said.

A comprehensive scheme to include welfare and medical needs for the victims, an apology and memorial are some of the things they seek from Britain.

Source: Sunday Nation (25/11/2012): http://www.nation.co.ke/News/UK-lawyer-visits-to-tighten-Mau-Mau-case-/-/1056/1628416/-/1ddwpt/-/index.html