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Kenyans sue UK government for colonial land theft
A group of Kenyan activists filed a case against the UK to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday (August 23). They are seeking an investigation and eventual compensation for land stolen under colonial rule.
Lawyers representing peoples forced off their land in Kenya’s Rift Valley argue the UK has violated the European Convention of Human Rights, to which it is a signatory, by consistently ignoring complaints lodged by the victims of colonial rule.
"The UK government has ducked and dived, and sadly avoided every possible avenue of redress. We have no choice but to proceed to court for our clients so that history can be righted," said lawyer Joel Kimutai Bosek, who is representing the group in Kenya's western Kericho region.
The British Empire ruled Kenya between the late 19th century and 1962. The peoples living in the Rift Valley were forced off their lands in the early 20th century.
Today, the area around Kericho, the biggest town in the Valley, is a major tea-growing region farmed by multinational majors.
“Today, some of the world’s most prosperous tea companies, like Unilever, Williamson Tea, Finlay’s, and Lipton occupy and farm these lands and continue to use them to generate considerable profits,” the plaintiffs said in a statement.
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The United Nations has said more than half a million Kenyans from the Kericho area suffered gross violations of human rights, including unlawful killings and displacement, during British colonial rule, which ended in 1963.
Many continue to suffer economic consequences from the theft of their land, the United Nations has also said.
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