Kenya clans taking UK to EU court over colonial-era land grab

Kenyans forced off their land by British settlers during colonial rule are taking their case against the UK to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), their supporters have said.

"The UK government has ducked and dived, and sadly avoided every possible avenue of redress," Joel Kimutai Bosek, who is representing the Kipsigis and Talai peoples, said on Tuesday. "We have no choice but to proceed to court for our clients so that history can be righted."

Lawyers for those evicted from Kenya's Rift Valley say that by ignoring the victims and their complaints, the UK government has violated the European Convention of Human Rights to which it is a signatory.

The Kipsigis and Talai were evicted in the early 20th century from ancestral lands around Kericho, a major tea-growing region today farmed by large multinationals including Unilever, Finlay's and Lipton.

They took their case to the UN, where a panel of special investigators in 2021 expressed "serious concern" at the UK's failure to offer a public apology or acknowledge their share of responsibility for these colonial-era abuses.

'Historic day'

The victims — more than 100,000 were signatories to the UN complaint filed in 2019 — demanded an apology, and reparations for their homeland being usurped and reallocated to white settlers, who used the fertile soil to cultivate tea.

But lawyers for the Kipsigis and Talai said the British government had refused to meet with the victims or their representatives.

The victims' legal team said it had made a submission to the EU court, which had yet to receive the application as of Tuesday afternoon.

"This is a historic day," said Paul Chepkwony, the outgoing governor of Kericho County, who has fought for reparations for years. "We have taken all reasonable and dignified steps. But the UK government has given us the cold shoulder ... we hope for those who have suffered for too long that their dignity will be restored."

British redress for colonial-era crimes is rare but not unheard of. In 2013, Britain agreed on a multi-million dollar compensation settlement for Kenyans tortured by colonial forces during an uprising at the tail end of the British Empire.

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 said, even as that same land has become profitable for multinational companies.