In 2011 Britain was surprised with a whopping 44,000 Kenyans collectively executing a 200 million pound lawsuit in compensation for the horrendous war crimes Britain committed nearly 60 years ago, but why now?
In 1953, post World War II and in the beginning of the colonial revolution throughout the world, Kenyans mostly from Kikuyu formed the Mau Mau Uprising. After decades of colonial rule and exploitation imposed by the British all over Kenya, experiencing the exploitation of their tribes they seized the opportunity to fight against a weakened British state.
The Mau Mau Uprising, while justified, was a violent uprising with the mindset of using everything you have to gain freedom. However, as much as the Kenyans had the desire to fight and punish the British colonials for their decades of colonial rule, they were simply no match for the sheer gunpowder the British held against them. Although the rebellion failed primarily, it proved to the British that during this post-colonial era, maintaining fighting colonies was too costly and paved the way for their independence.
The British, in response to this rebellion, committed some extremely egregious war crimes against the Kenyan people. They were imprisoned, raped, tortured and humiliated with thousands of victims giving gruesome details of their experience. When Kenya finally gained independence from Britain it appears that immediate fear hit British officials with paper evidence and photographs detailing their crimes against humanity. Their cowardly response to burn all of this evidence then find themselves the legitimacy to contest the lawsuit in the present day is laughable.
Now, the only living evidence the Kenyans have to detail their abuse is from witness and victims statements alone. This causes the lawsuit to become extremely drawn out and a topic of divide discussion- how long will colonial forces be subject to pay for their crimes?
A conversation reserved for those who maintain their ignorance and avidly assure themselves unaware of the sheer brutality the British empire held. Now with the last victim to pass this year does this mean the crime should be forgotten and the British have paid their expenses? This begs the follow up question: how much money is enough? It is surely not enough with the living victims of the crime still being alive but is that the only contemporary.
As long as colonial countries still reap the benefits of colonial domination the discussion of reparations will not stampede. The new generation carries the burden their ancestors were forced to succumb to.
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