A UK judge yesterday said four elderly Kenyans who claim they were tortured during an anti-colonial rebellion in the 1950s can sue the British Government. According to a report on the News24 site, the Kenyans say they were beaten and sexually assaulted by officers acting for the British administration who were trying to suppress the ‘Mau Mau’ rebellion against British officials and white farmers. High Court judge Richard McCombe ruled that the claimants ‘have arguable cases in law’, and the suit can go ahead. The Guardian reports that the decision is a severe setback for the Foreign Office which had argued that the UK Government should not be answerable for any abuses committed by the former British colony and that liability had devolved onto the present Kenyan Government. McCombe described the UK authorities’ attempts to avoid responsibility as ‘dishonourable’ but accepted that before a full trial the issue of whether the injuries were sustained too long ago – and beyond any period of limitations – would have to be argued at a separate hearing.
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