Editing Mau Mau rebellion (section)

===Compensation claims===
In 1999, a collection of former fighters calling themselves the Mau Mau Original Group announced that they would attempt a £5&nbsp;billion claim against the UK on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Kenyans for ill-treatment that they said they had suffered during the rebellion, though nothing came of it.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/1999/0821/99082100081.html |title= Former guerrillas seek damages |date= 8 August 1999 |newspaper= The Irish Times |access-date=30 May 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/426100.stm |title= Mau Mau compensation demand |date= 20 August 1999 |publisher= BBC News |access-date= 30 May 2012 |archive-date= 15 April 2004 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20040415033152/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/426100.stm |url-status= live }}</ref> In November 2002, the Mau Mau Trust{{mdash}}a welfare group for former members of the movement{{mdash}}announced that it would attempt to sue the British government for widespread human rights violations it said had been committed against its members.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2429227.stm |last= Thompson |first= Mike |date= 9 November 2002 |title= Mau Mau rebels threaten court action |publisher= BBC News |access-date= 30 May 2012 |archive-date= 23 April 2006 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060423065327/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2429227.stm |url-status= live }}</ref> Until September 2003, the Mau Mau movement was banned.<ref name="BBC ban">{{cite news |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3196245.stm |last= Plaut |first= Martin |date= 31 August 2003 |title= Kenya lifts ban on Mau Mau |publisher= BBC News |access-date= 30 May 2012 |archive-date= 14 March 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070314053439/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3196245.stm |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1531184/Mau-Mau-veterans-issue-writ-deadline.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1531184/Mau-Mau-veterans-issue-writ-deadline.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Mau Mau veterans issue writ deadline |author=Mike Pflanz |date=11 October 2006 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |access-date=11 February 2012 |location=London}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Once the ban was removed, former Mau Mau members who had been castrated or otherwise tortured were supported by the Kenya Human Rights Commission, in particular by the commission's George Morara, in their attempt to take on the British government;<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/mau-mau-veterans-to-sue-over-british-atrocities-417565.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220512/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/mau-mau-veterans-to-sue-over-british-atrocities-417565.html |archive-date=12 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Mau Mau veterans to sue over British 'atrocities' |last= Mitchell |first= Andrew |newspaper=The Independent|date=26 September 2006 |access-date=12 April 2011 |location=London}}</ref><ref name="HG 2012">{{cite news |url= http://aaas.fas.harvard.edu/news/professor-elkins-helps-make-case-aged-kenyan-veterans-deserve-justice |last= Ireland |first= Corydon |date= 1 September 2011 |title= Justice for Kenya's Mau Mau |newspaper= [[Harvard Gazette]] |access-date= 30 May 2012 |archive-date= 7 April 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120407025907/http://aaas.fas.harvard.edu/news/professor-elkins-helps-make-case-aged-kenyan-veterans-deserve-justice |url-status= live }}</ref> their lawyers had amassed 6,000 depositions regarding human rights abuses by late 2002.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/2416049.stm |last= McGhie |first= John |date= 9 November 2002 |title= Kenya: White Terror |publisher= BBC |access-date= 26 May 2012 |archive-date= 6 February 2008 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080206191801/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/2416049.stm |url-status= live }}</ref> 42 potential claimants were interviewed, from whom five were chosen to prosecute a test case; one of the five, Susan Ciong'ombe Ngondi, has since died.<ref name="HG 2012"/> The remaining four test claimants are: Ndiku Mutua, who was castrated; Paulo Muoka Nzili, who was castrated; Jane Muthoni Mara, who was subjected to sexual assault that included having bottles filled with boiling water pushed up her vagina; and Wambugu Wa Nyingi, who survived the [[Hola massacre]].<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/12998628 |title= 'He came with pliers'—Kenyan alleges torture by British colonial authorities |publisher= BBC News |date= 7 April 2011 |access-date= 30 May 2012 |archive-date= 16 July 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120716122739/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/12998628 |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12994190 |title= Mau Mau case: UK government cannot be held liable |publisher= BBC News |date= 7 April 2011 |access-date= 29 May 2012 |archive-date= 27 April 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120427031552/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12994190 |url-status= live }}</ref><ref name="Permission 2011">{{cite news |url= https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/england/london-travel/kenyan-veterans-celebrate-first-victory-in-compensation-claim-882gg0wdtnc |last= McConnell |first= Tristan |date= 21 July 2011 |title= Kenyan veterans celebrate first victory in compensation claim |newspaper= [[The Times]] |access-date= 29 May 2012 |archive-date= 18 March 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150318181210/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article3101139.ece |url-status= live }}</ref>

[[Ben Macintyre]] of ''The Times'' said of the legal case: "Opponents of these proceedings have pointed out, rightly, that the Mau Mau was a brutal terrorist force, guilty of the most dreadful atrocities. Yet only one of the claimants is of that stamp{{mdash}}Mr Nzili. He has admitted taking the Mau Mau oath and said that all he did was to ferry food to the fighters in the forest. None has been accused, let alone convicted, of any crime."<ref name="not accused">{{cite news |url= http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/law/article2977473.ece |last= Macintyre |first= Ben |date= 8 April 2011 |title= In court to face the ghosts of the past |newspaper= [[The Times]] |access-date= 30 May 2012 |archive-date= 17 March 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150317211426/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/law/article2977473.ece |url-status= dead }}</ref>

Upon publication of Caroline Elkins' ''[[Imperial Reckoning]]'' in 2005, Kenya called for an apology from the UK for atrocities committed during the 1950s.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4318277.stm |title= UK 'atrocity' apology |date= 4 March 2005 |publisher= BBC News |access-date= 30 May 2012 |archive-date= 16 June 2006 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060616153605/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4318277.stm |url-status= live }}</ref> The British government claimed that the issue was the responsibility of the Kenyan government, on the ground of [[Succession of states|"state succession"]] for former colonies, relying on an obscure legal precedent relating to [[Patagonian toothfish]]<ref name="Guardian 05.04.2011">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/05/kenyans-sue-uk-colonial-human-rights-abuses |title=Kenyans sue UK for alleged colonial human rights abuses |author=Owen Bowcott |date=5 April 2011 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=11 February 2012 |archive-date=30 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930042813/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/05/kenyans-sue-uk-colonial-human-rights-abuses |url-status=live }}</ref> and the declaration of martial law in Jamaica in 1860.<ref name="Guardian 07.04.2011">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/07/kenyans-mau-mau-compensation-case |title=Mau Mau victims seek compensation from UK for alleged torture |author=Owen Bowcott |date=7 April 2011 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=11 February 2012 |archive-date=30 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930043003/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/07/kenyans-mau-mau-compensation-case |url-status=live }}</ref>

In July 2011, "George Morara strode down the corridor and into a crowded little room [in Nairobi] where 30 elderly Kenyans sat hunched together around a table clutching cups of hot tea and sharing plates of biscuits. 'I have good news from London', he announced. 'We have won the first part of the battle!' At once, the room erupted in cheers."<ref name="Permission 2011"/> The good news was that a British judge had ruled that the Kenyans could sue the British government for their torture.<ref name="Guardian_21072011">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/21/mau-mau-torture-kenyans-compensation |title=Mau Mau torture claim Kenyans win right to sue British government |author=Owen Bowcott |date=21 July 2011 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=21 July 2011 |archive-date=30 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930132912/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/21/mau-mau-torture-kenyans-compensation |url-status=live }}</ref> Morara said that, if the first test cases succeeded, perhaps 30,000 others would file similar complaints of torture.<ref name="Permission 2011"/> Explaining his decision, [[Richard McCombe|Mr Justice McCombe]] said the claimants had an "arguable case",<ref name="BBC_21072011">{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14232049 |title=Mau Mau Kenyans allowed to sue UK government |author=Dominic Casciani |date=21 July 2011 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=21 July 2011 |archive-date=21 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721112510/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14232049 |url-status=live }}</ref> and added:
{{blockquote|It may well be thought strange, or perhaps even dishonourable, that a legal system which will not in any circumstances admit into its proceedings evidence obtained by torture should yet refuse to entertain a claim against the Government in its own jurisdiction for that Government's allegedly negligent failure to prevent torture which it had the means to prevent. Furthermore, resort to technicality ... to rule such a claim out of court appears particularly misplaced.<ref name="Times 21Jul2011">{{cite news |url= https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/kenyans-can-sue-over-colonial-torture-h3gd5cgx0ck |last1= Macintyre |first1= Ben |last2= Ralph |first2= Alex |last3= McConnell |first3= Tristan |date= 21 July 2011 |title= Kenyans can sue over 'colonial torture' |newspaper= [[The Times]] |access-date= 29 May 2012 |archive-date= 18 March 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150318182719/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article3100937.ece |url-status= live }}</ref>}}A ''Times'' editorial noted with satisfaction that "Mr Justice McCombe told the FCO, in effect, to get lost. ... Though the arguments against reopening very old wounds are seductive, they fail morally. There are living claimants and it most certainly was not their fault that the documentary evidence that seems to support their claims was for so long 'lost' in the governmental filing system."<ref name="Times ed 2011">{{cite news |url= https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/good-news-from-london-swxhrzpqqwh |author= Editorial |date= 22 July 2011 |title= Good News from London |newspaper= [[The Times]] |access-date= 29 May 2012 |archive-date= 18 March 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150318185731/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/leaders/article3101596.ece |url-status= live }}</ref>

{{quote box
| quote = If we are going to sin, we must sin quietly.<ref name="times_12042011">{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Times]] |date=12 April 2011 |title=Torture device No 1: the legal rubber stamp |author=Ben Macintyre |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/torture-device-no-1-the-legal-rubber-stamp-r5fj3gntns3 |access-date=12 April 2011 |archive-date=4 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004210117/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/benmacintyre/article2981528.ece |url-status=live }}</ref>
| source = —Kenyan Attorney-General Eric Griffith-Jones
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| sstyle = text-align: right;}}During the course of the Mau Mau legal battle in London, a large amount of what was stated to be formerly lost Foreign Office archival material was finally brought to light, while yet more was discovered to be missing.<ref name="Elkins 2011">{{Harvnb|Elkins|2011}}.</ref> The files, known as ''[[Foreign and Commonwealth Office migrated archives|migrated archives]]'', provided details of British human rights abuses (torture, rape, execution)<ref>{{cite news |date= 18 July 2012 |title= Kenyans were tortured during Mau Mau rebellion, High Court hears |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/kenya/9407422/Kenyans-were-tortured-during-Mau-Mau-rebellion-High-Court-hears.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/kenya/9407422/Kenyans-were-tortured-during-Mau-Mau-rebellion-High-Court-hears.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |newspaper= [[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date= 18 March 2013 |location=London}}{{cbignore}}</ref> in its former colonies during the final stages of empire, including during Mau Mau, and even after decolonisation.

Regarding the Mau Mau Uprising, the records included confirmation of "the extent of the violence inflicted on suspected Mau Mau rebels"<ref name="times_13042011">{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Times]] |date=13 April 2011 |title=Brutal beatings and the 'roasting alive' of a suspect: what secret Mau Mau files reveal |author1=Ben Macintyre |author2=Billy Kenber |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article2983138.ece |access-date=13 April 2011 |quote=Sir Evelyn Baring, the Governor of Kenya, in a telegram to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, reported allegations of extreme brutality made against eight European district officers. They included 'assault by beating up and burning of two Africans during screening [interrogation]' and one officer accused of 'murder by beating up and roasting alive of one African'. No action was taken against the accused. |archive-date=4 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004210420/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article2983138.ece |url-status=live }}</ref> in British detention camps documented in Caroline Elkins' study.<ref name="guardian_14042011a">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/apr/14/torture-mau-mau-camps-kenya |author=Caroline Elkins |date=14 April 2011 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |title=My critics ignored evidence of torture in Mau Mau detention camps |access-date=14 April 2011 |archive-date=30 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930033530/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/apr/14/torture-mau-mau-camps-kenya |url-status=live }}</ref> Numerous allegations of murder and rape by British military personnel are recorded in the files, including an incident where a native Kenyan baby was "burnt to death", the "defilement of a young girl", and a soldier in Royal Irish Fusiliers who killed "in cold blood two people who had been his captives for over 12 hours".<ref name="Torture 2011">{{cite news |url= https://www.thetimes.com/article/new-documents-show-how-britain-sanctioned-mau-mau-torture-rcjwwhjhwb2 |last= Kenber |first= Billy |date= 19 April 2011 |title= New documents show how Britain sanctioned Mau Mau torture |newspaper= [[The Times]] |access-date= 29 May 2012 |archive-date= 17 March 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150317212807/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article2992053.ece |url-status= live }}</ref> Baring himself was aware of the "extreme brutality" of the sometimes lethal torture meted out{{mdash}}which included "most drastic" beatings, solitary confinement, starvation, castration, whipping, burning, rape, sodomy, and forceful insertion of objects into orifices{{mdash}}but took no action.<ref name="guardian_11042011"/><ref name="times_13042011"/> Baring's inaction was despite the urging of people like Arthur Young, Commissioner of Police for Kenya for less than eight months of 1954 before he resigned in protest, that "the horror of some of the [camps] should be investigated without delay".<ref name="times_13042011a"/> In February 1956, a provincial commissioner in Kenya, "Monkey" Johnson, wrote to Attorney General [[Reginald Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne|Reginald Manningham-Buller]] urging him to block any enquiry into the methods used against Mau Mau: "It would now appear that each and every one of us, from the Governor downwards, may be in danger of removal from public service by a commission of enquiry as a result of enquiries made by the CID."<ref name="Indie 08.04.2011">{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cabinet-hushed-up-torture-of-mau-mau-rebels-2264955.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220512/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cabinet-hushed-up-torture-of-mau-mau-rebels-2264955.html |archive-date=12 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Cabinet 'hushed up' torture of Mau Mau rebels |author=Andy McSmith |date=8 April 2011 |newspaper=The Independent|access-date=10 February 2012 |location=London}}</ref> The April 2012 release also included detailed accounts of the policy of seizing livestock from Kenyans suspected of supporting Mau Mau rebels.<ref name="BBC 2012 docs"/>

{{quote box
| quote = Main criticism we shall have to meet is that 'Cowan plan'<ref>Question, House of Lords, London 12 May 1959 – [https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1959/may/12/deaths-in-kenya-detention-camp 'Whether the Government will make available to this House the text of the Cowan plan'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240409023846/https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1959/may/12/deaths-in-kenya-detention-camp |date=9 April 2024 }}</ref> which was approved by Government contained instructions which in effect authorised unlawful use of violence against detainees.<ref name="bbc_12042011">{{cite news |publisher=BBC News |date=12 April 2011 |title=British Mau Mau abuse papers revealed |author=Dominic Casciani |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13044974 |access-date=12 May 2011 |archive-date=3 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110503211353/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13044974 |url-status=live }}</ref>
| source = Colonial Secretary [[Alan Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton|Alan Lennox-Boyd]]
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| sstyle = text-align: right;}}Commenting on the papers, David Anderson stated that the "documents were hidden away to protect the guilty",<ref name="times_05042011b">{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Times]] |date=5 April 2011 |title=Tales of brutality and violence that could open the claims floodgate |author=Ben Macintyre |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/tales-of-brutality-and-violence-that-could-open-the-claims-floodgate-6230mg7b75t |access-date=6 April 2011 |quote=A letter was sent to William Hague on March 31 stating: 'The Republic of Kenya fully supports the claimants' case and has publicly denied any notion that responsibility for any acts and atrocities committed by the British colonial administration during the Kenya 'Emergency' was inherited by the Republic of Kenya.' |archive-date=4 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004205836/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article2973063.ece |url-status=live }}</ref> and "that the extent of abuse now being revealed is truly disturbing".<ref name="Guardian 25 July 2011">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jul/25/kenya-empire-mau-mau-britain |title=It's not just Kenya. Squaring up to the seamier side of empire is long overdue |author=David Anderson |date=25 July 2011 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=27 July 2011 |archive-date=30 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930123152/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jul/25/kenya-empire-mau-mau-britain |url-status=live }}</ref> "Everything that could happen did happen. Allegations about beatings and violence were widespread. Basically you could get away with murder. It was systematic", Anderson said.<ref name="bbc_07042011">{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12997138 |title=Mau Mau uprising: Bloody history of Kenya conflict |publisher=BBC News |date=7 April 2011 |access-date=12 May 2011 |quote=There was lots of suffering on the other side too. This was a dirty war. It became a civil war{{mdash}}though that idea remains extremely unpopular in Kenya today. |archive-date=10 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110410182853/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12997138 |url-status=live }} (The quote is of Professor David Anderson)</ref><ref>For more on Anderson's reaction to the 'missing' papers, see:
* {{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13317076 |title=Colonial secret papers to be made public |publisher=BBC News |date=6 May 2011 |access-date=12 May 2011 |archive-date=9 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110509052134/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13317076 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9449000/9449775.stm |title=Mau Mau blame 'goes right to the top' |work=Today |publisher=BBC |author=Mark Thompson |date=7 April 2011 |access-date=12 May 2011 |at=02:38–03:31 |quote=These new documents were withheld because they were considered to be particularly sensitive, so we can but imagine what will be in these documents.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Senior members of the Commonwealth Office in London ''did'' know what was happening; senior legal officials in London ''did'', to some extent, sanction the use of coercive force; and also, at Cabinet level, the Secretary of State for the Colonies certainly knew of the excesses that were taking place. |archive-date=10 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110410213759/http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9449000/9449775.stm |url-status=live }} (The quote is of Anderson)</ref> An example of this impunity is the case of eight colonial officials accused of having prisoners tortured to death going unpunished even after their actions were reported to London.<ref name="Indie 08.04.2011"/> Huw Bennett of King's College London, who had worked with Anderson on the Chuka Massacre, said in a witness statement to the court that the new documents "considerably strengthen" the knowledge that the British Army were "intimately involved" with the colonial security forces, whom they knew were "systematically abusing and torturing detainees in screening centres and detention camps".<ref name="Torture 2011"/> In April 2011, lawyers for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office continued to maintain that there was no such policy.<ref name="Torture 2011"/> As early as November 1952, however, military reports noted that "[t]he Army has been used for carrying out certain functions that properly belonged to the Police, eg. searching of huts and screening of Africans", and British soldiers arrested and transferred Mau Mau suspects to camps where they were beaten and tortured until they confessed. Bennett said that "the British Army retained ultimate operational control over all security forces throughout the Emergency", and that its military intelligence operation worked "hand in glove" with the Kenyan Special Branch "including in screening and interrogations in centres and detention camps".<ref name="Torture 2011"/>

The Kenyan government sent a letter to the [[Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs]], [[William Hague]], insisting that the UK government was legally liable for the atrocities.<ref name="times_05042011b"/> The Foreign Office, however, reaffirmed its position that it was not, in fact, liable for colonial atrocities,<ref name="times_05042011b"/> and argued that the documents had not "disappeared" as part of a cover-up.<ref name="ft_050411">{{cite news |url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c4fde0d2-5fb6-11e0-a718-00144feab49a.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c4fde0d2-5fb6-11e0-a718-00144feab49a.html |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |author=James Blitz |newspaper=[[Financial Times]] |date=5 April 2011 |title=Mau Mau case casts light on colonial records |access-date=9 April 2011}}</ref> Nearly ten years before, in late 2002, as the BBC aired a documentary detailing British human rights abuses committed during the rebellion and 6,000 depositions had been taken for the legal case, former district colonial officer [[John Nottingham]] had expressed concern that compensation be paid soon, since most victims were in their 80s and would soon die. He told the BBC: "What went on in the Kenya camps and villages was brutal, savage torture. It is time that the mockery of justice that was perpetrated in this country at that time, should be, must be righted. I feel ashamed to have come from a Britain that did what it did here [in Kenya]."<ref>{{cite news |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/2416049.stm |last= McGhie |first= John |date= 9 November 2002 |title= Kenya: White Terror |work= Correspondent |publisher= BBC |access-date= 26 May 2012 |archive-date= 6 February 2008 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080206191801/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/2416049.stm |url-status= live }}</ref>

Thirteen boxes of "top secret" Kenya files are still missing.<ref name="MaKe 15Apr2012">{{cite news |url= https://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article2987040.ece |title= Hundreds more top secret files missing in Mau Mau abuse case |last1= Macintyre |first1= Ben |last2= Kenber |first2= Billy |date= 15 April 2011 |newspaper= [[The Times]] |access-date= 26 May 2012 |quote= In a statement to the court dated March 8, released to ''The Times'' yesterday, Martin Tucker, head of corporate records at the Foreign Office, reported that the 13 missing boxes could not be found. 'There were at one time a further 13 boxes of material retrieved from Kenya at independence which are additional to the documents discovered in Hanslope Park [the closed Foreign Office repository in Buckinghamshire] in January of this year', he wrote. He found evidence that the files had once been stored in the basement of the Old Admiralty Building in Whitehall, but traces of them had vanished after 1995. |archive-date= 17 May 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150517122008/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article2987040.ece |url-status= live }}</ref><ref name="Elkins 18Apr2012">{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/apr/18/colonial-papers-fco-transparency-myth |last= Elkins |first= Caroline |date= 18 April 2012 |title= The colonial papers: FCO transparency is a carefully cultivated myth |newspaper= [[The Guardian]] |access-date= 7 May 2012 |archive-date= 1 September 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140901081050/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/apr/18/colonial-papers-fco-transparency-myth |url-status= live }}</ref>

In October 2012, Mr Justice McCombe granted the surviving elderly test claimants the right to sue the UK for damages.<ref>{{cite news |last= Cobain |first= Ian |date= 5 October 2012 |title= Mau Mau torture case: Kenyans win ruling against UK |url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/05/mau-mau-veterans-win-torture-case |newspaper= [[The Guardian]] |access-date= 6 May 2012 |archive-date= 31 October 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131031191413/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/05/mau-mau-veterans-win-torture-case |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1= Day |first1= Martyn |author-link= Martyn Day (lawyer) |last2= Leader |first2= Dan |date= 5 October 2012 |title= The Kenyans tortured by the British must now be justly treated |url= https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/05/kenyans-tortured-by-british |newspaper= [[The Guardian]] |access-date= 6 May 2012 |archive-date= 4 March 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160304103414/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/05/kenyans-tortured-by-british |url-status= live }}</ref> The UK government then opted for what the claimants' lawyers called the "morally repugnant" decision to appeal McCombe's ruling.<ref>{{cite news |last= Townsend |first= Mark |date= 23 December 2012 |title= Fury as Britain fights ruling on Kenya torture victims |url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/23/britain-fights-kenya-torture-ruling |newspaper= [[The Guardian]] |access-date= 6 May 2013 |archive-date= 5 September 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130905024523/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/23/britain-fights-kenya-torture-ruling |url-status= live }}</ref> In May 2013, it was reported that the appeal was on hold while the UK government held compensation negotiations with the claimants.<ref name="Guardian 5 May 2013">{{cite news |last1= Cobain |first1= Ian |last2= Hatcher |first2= Jessica |date= 5 May 2013 |title= Kenyan Mau Mau victims in talks with UK government over legal settlement |url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/05/mau-mau-victims-kenya-settlement |newspaper= [[The Guardian]] |access-date= 6 May 2012 |archive-date= 25 June 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230625164614/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/05/mau-mau-victims-kenya-settlement |url-status= live }}</ref><ref name="Bennett 05May12">{{cite news |last= Bennett |first= Huw |date= 5 May 2013 |title= Kenyan Mau Mau: official policy was to cover up brutal mistreatment |url= https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/05/kenyan-mau-mau-cover-up-mistreatment |newspaper= [[The Guardian]] |access-date= 6 May 2013 |archive-date= 10 October 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131010004007/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/05/kenyan-mau-mau-cover-up-mistreatment |url-status= live }}</ref>