Nandi County to sue British government

Dennis Tarus

October 21, 2016 6:23 PM

The Nandi County Government has set aside over Sh100 million in legal fees in a case against the British government for past crimes.

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The Nandi County Government has set aside over Sh100 million in legal fees in a case against the British government for past crimes committed against them in the early 1900s.

The case, filed in Britain, will be led by lawyer Karim Khan, who successfully represented Deputy President William Ruto and former head of civil service Francis Muthaura in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The county has at the same time demanded that the British government return the head of Nandi political and spiritual leader Koitalel arap Samoei.

Koitalel, who led an eleven-year resistance movement against the British was killed in 1905 by the colonial masters.

Speaking during the Mashujaa celebrations, Governor Cleophas Lagat said that the county was seeking compensation for atrocities committed during the Nandi Resistance where close to 10,000 people were killed and thousands of others displaced.

Previous pay out

In 2013, Britain agreed to pay out £20m in costs and compensation to more than 5,000 elderly Kenyans who suffered torture and abuse during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s.

The then Foreign Secretary William in a statement announced the UK government recognised Kenyans were tortured and it "sincerely regrets" the abuses that took place.

The compensation amounted to about £3,000 per victim and applies only to the living survivors of the abuses that took place.

The Mau Mau, a guerrilla group, began a violent campaign against white settlers in 1952, but the uprising was eventually put down by the British colonial government.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission says 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed, and 160,000 people were detained in appalling conditions.

Dennis Tarus