Kenyans' journey for justice

LONDON - The five elderly Kenyans who stood on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice had, until yesterday, never set foot outside of Africa.

They had travelled 6400km to London to secure an apology - and compensation - from the British Government over the killing, torture and abuse they say was suffered by thousands of Mau Mau fighters during the 1950s and 60s.

For Ndiku Mutua, born in 1932 in Kilungu village in the Machakos district of Kenya, it is a last chance to force Britain to acknowledge its role in his torture.

Mutua says he was beaten and castrated after admitting giving food to the Mau Mau supporters who were living in a nearby forest during the early 1950s.

He told the district authorities that he sympathised with the independence movement and supplied the Mau Mau rebels with four cows.

Mutua, now 77, was arrested by four soldiers who beat him with rifle butts with such ferocity that they broke his jaw.

The herdsman was later taken to a detention centre where he was forcibly castrated with pliers. Despite the pain he managed to escape with three other men who had also been castrated.

He was lucky and survived his ordeal after receiving medical treatment in secret from the local hospital. His three colleagues all died from their injuries.

Mutua, who never married, said yesterday: "I live with the physical and mental scars of what happened to me. Not a day goes by when I do not think of these terrible events.

"At last I can tell my story and at last I can hope for justice from the British courts."

His story is among five test cases filed at the High Court that could bring compensation for thousands of Kenyans.

It is claimed that such torture was sanctioned at the highest levels of the British Government by the then Colonial Secretary.

- INDEPENDENT