Kenyans sue Britain at European Court of Human Rights over colonial abuses

By Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) – A group of Kenyans who were forcefully evicted from their land by British settlers during colonial rule filed a case against the UK on Tuesday at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to demand justice.

The group’s lawyer, Joel Kimutai Bosek, told the media that the UK has been avoiding the matter whenever it has been brought up for years now, and that is the reason they went to the court to file a lawsuit.

The crimes the UK is being accused of which were committed during the colonial era include forced evictions from ancestral lands.

Bosek, who is representing the Talai and Kipsigis peoples, in a statement to the media said the UK government has “avoided every possible avenue of redress,” forcing the group to proceed to court.

The victims from the Talai and Kipsigis communities in Kericho County who suffered at the hands of the British colonialists number over 100,000. They were evicted from ancestral lands around Kericho in the early 20th century.

In 2019, they submitted online petitions to the UN demanding an apology and compensation for the colonial crimes meted out against them.

It was in 1963 when Kenya gained its independence from the colonial government. To this day, historians say the resistance from the Mau Mau rebel group hastened the end of colonial rule in Kenya.