GENEVA, Sept 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Kenyan and British lawyers have submitted a complaint to the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of Kenyans who were forced from their land during the British colonial era.
They say they suffered horrific human rights abuses when British settlers took over their land in what is now Kericho County in the fertile Rift Valley.
The land was later leased to multinationals including tea companies.
The lawyers hope hundreds of elderly people and their relatives can get justice and compensation from the British government.
In 2013 thousands of elderly Kenyans won close to $20m (£16m) after going to court over human rights abuses they had suffered at the hands of the British colonialists in the 1950s during the Mau Mau rebellion.
When the land was seized, horrific acts of human rights abuses ensued and the natives were scattered. They were resettled in native reserves, where land could not be fully utilized. The land that the British seized belonged to the Kipsigis community.
The Kenyans were left without the capability to fully own their land. This is because the land that the colonial settlers had seized was later leased out to several multinationals, including tea companies.
For the elderly who suffered directly from this violent dispossession, it is only right for Britain to compensate them as an act of accountability. Hundreds of elderly people were forcefully removed from their rightful land in the most vicious and brutal ways.
Revolting against British rule in the 1950s in Kenya was tantamount to a death sentence. There were rapes, abductions, tortures and killings inflicted on those who were against British rule.
