KENYA: Veterans of Kenya's Mau Mau insurgency will today demand an apology and compensation for the torture they say they suffered at the hands of British authorities more than 50 years ago.
A handful of frail fighters met at Nairobi's Norfolk Hotel - itself a symbol of Britain's colonial rule - last week to finalise details of their claim.
Today their testimonies will be passed to the British government.
According to British law, failure to reach a deal will see 11 cases go before the High Court in London.
Among the claims are women who say they suffered sexual abuse and had to endure bottles being pushed into their vaginas.
Martyn Day, a British lawyer hired by the Kenyan Human Rights Commission to represent the veterans, said: "We recognise the pain, suffering and torment that these freedom fighters have gone through. Many of them are still suffering from the after-effects today.
"We call on the British government to pay compensation to these people so that they can receive the justice they deserve."
The veterans were part of the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s against colonial rule. To their supporters, they were freedom fighters. To the British colonial powers, they were a group of bloodthirsty terrorists.
News reports in the United States and Britain at the time made the name Mau Mau synonymous with African tribal violence against whites.
The uprising prompted a heavy-handed response by colonial police and allied home guards who rounded up thousands of young Kikuyu men and allegedly brutalised and tortured many. When the colonial government lifted the state of emergency in 1961, an official report determined that more than 11,000 Africans, most of them civilians, and 32 whites died during that period. Two years later Kenya gained its independence from Britain.
However, their role in the independence struggle remains controversial. The Mau Mau movement remained banned in Kenya even after independence and many senior figures in the fledgling government were ranged against what they saw as a divisive, tribal-based band of thugs.
Last week, at the Norfolk Hotel, those concerns were forgotten. Among the alleged victims of British brutality was Wambugu Wa Nyingi (78). He told journalists how he witnessed 11 prisoners being clubbed to death in a prison camp. He was beaten and left for dead.
"I was hit on the lower back of the head around the neck until I passed out," he said. "I lay unconscious with the 11 corpses for three days at a room where the corpses had been placed awaiting burial."
Last week was the first time the veterans set foot amid the luxurious furnishings and lush gardens of the Norfolk, a favourite haunt of the country's colonial elite. "This was the sort of place that we Africans just weren't allowed in," said Wanyeki Macharia.
Their case faces several major hurdles. A spokeswoman for the British High Commission said any claim would be contested vigorously.