Kenya is the world's largest exporter of black tea, an industry which employs more than 3.5 million Kenyans. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Summary
- Survivors and their descendants hope to win "significant" compensation from Britain's High Court and the return of swathes of land, largely owned by international tea companies.
- The case could be politically important for millions of voters ahead of Kenya's elections in August, with some politicians already starting to stoke tensions over land.
- Much of the land vacated when the British left Kenya in 1963 after 43 years was sold to the political elite who could afford to buy it, rather than returned to its original owners.
- London-based Finlays, one of the tea companies whose land is being targeted, declined to comment.
In a roadside cafe in Kenya's majestic
highlands, Elly Sigilai cradled a steaming mug of tea and recalled how
17 relatives died after British colonialists ousted them in 1934 to
plant tea on their family land.
The 79-year-old is one
of hundreds of elderly Kenyans seeking to sue the British government for
alleged displacement and torture by its colonial predecessor, in a case
that could encourage other former colonies to press similar claims.
"Those
on this list died from malaria and sleeping sickness," said Sigilai, a
neatly folded piece of paper in his hand naming the dead in his family,
including two brothers and a sister.
"They were sent to a valley infested by tsetse flies to die."
Survivors
and their descendants hope to win "significant" compensation from
Britain's High Court and the return of swathes of land, largely owned by
international tea companies, said George Tarus, a legal advisor to the
government of Nandi County in Kenya's North Rift region, which is
financing the case.
"We became beggars in our own land," Sigilai said, removing a faded baseball cap and putting it on the table by his tea.
"We
love it," he said of the commodity which is grown in and around
Kericho, 260 kms (162 miles) northwest of Kenya's capital. "But it has
brought a lot of misery to my community."
Around 200 people have already come forward with evidence to support the case, Tarus said.
"All land within Nandi belongs to the county and we want it all to be given back to us," he said.
Kenya's 47 counties manage leaseholds on their land.
A British foreign office spokeswoman declined to comment on the legal proceedings.
The
case could be politically important for millions of voters ahead of
Kenya's elections in August, with some politicians already starting to
stoke tensions over land.
More than 1,200 Kenyans were
killed following a disputed 2007 poll, largely in the Rift Valley where
resentment over the loss of land during the colonial era still festers.
Much
of the land vacated when the British left Kenya in 1963 after 43 years
was sold to the political elite who could afford to buy it, rather than
returned to its original owners.
Atrocities
Kenya
was one of Britain's most important colonies with hundreds of settlers
moving into the best agricultural land to grow tea, coffee and tobacco,
forcing Africans into reserves and employing them as cooks, guards and
gardeners.
The British displaced hundreds of Nandi and
Kipsigis families - sub-tribes of Kenya's third largest ethnic group,
the Kalenjin - from the Rift Valley highlands for tea plantations.
"They have to pay for what they did to us," said Moses Mosonet, 83, a Nandi, his eyes coated with a milky veneer.
"They
can take their tea and leave us with our land," he said, seated outside
his home, which overlooks lush, hilly tea estates in Nandi, some 70 km
north of Kericho, not far from the African reserve where his parents
were taken eight decades ago.
Kenya is the world's
largest exporter of black tea, an industry which employs more than 3.5
million Kenyans, directly and indirectly, the national trade union says.
London-based Finlays, one of the tea companies whose land is being targeted, declined to comment.
ALSO READ: Bill proposes payment for expired leases
Dozens of villages were decimated, the potential plaintiffs say, and those who opposed the displacement tortured and exiled.
"Serious
atrocities were committed," said Philemon Koech of Lilan and Koech
Associates, which won a tender from Nandi County government in March to
pursue a civil case for reparations.
"If such things
like the torture of the people and their subsequent displacement were to
happen in present day, we would be dealing with the International
Criminal Court (ICC)."
More than 5,200 other elderly
Kenyans won almost 14 million pounds ($18 million) in compensation from
Britain in a 2013 out-of-court settlement for abuse by colonial forces
during the 1950s Mau Mau insurgency.
Evidence
Gathering
evidence will not be easy, particularly as the annexation of African
land was legal under British colonial law, said Gitobu Imanyara, a
Kenyan human rights lawyer.
"There can hardly be anyone alive to corroborate some of the claims," he said.
Once
the evidence is collected, British lawyer Karim Khan, who specialises
in international criminal law and international human rights law, has
agreed to assess its worth.
"I will advise on the merits or otherwise of a case under English law," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
"I can't possibly say that there will definitely be a case in the High Court until I have advised on the evidence."
Khan is well-known in Kenya for
successfully defending deputy president William Ruto against charges of
crimes against humanity in the ICC from 2013 to 2016.
While
the undulating manicured tea bushes, extending as far as the eye can
see, evoke painful memories for the elderly, the younger generation are
more sceptical about the case.
"If they tell the
multinationals to leave who will employ us?" asked Justus Ngetich, 30, a
taxi driver in Bomet, some 70 km south of Kericho.
"It
is all about power and politics, not about the well being of the
people. We shall just sit here and watch the tea estates change hands
from the whites to blacks."
-Thomson Reuters Foundation-
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