The untouchables

BY NYAMBEGA GISESA
ngisesa@standardmedia.co.ke
 

The names of Gitu Wa Kahengeri, secretary general of the Mau Mau War Veterans Association, Paulo Nzili, Wambugu Wa Nyingi and Jane Muthoni Mara, will remain forever etched in the memory of many a freedom fighter, torturer and executioner alike.

For getting a compensation package 50 years on and a British grudging apology has not been easy. And certainly, not cheap. Obviously, Sh300,000 can never be compensation enough for any form of brutality. But the mere fact that these veterans of Kenya’s war of independence managed to bring down a First World country’s wall of silence, is testament to their importunity and resilience.

Not even the Foreign and Commonwealth Office attempts to muzzle the bid, perhaps hoping a tone-deaf strategy would wish it away could keep the veterans off the scent.

Arguments that the court action was outside the legal time limit and the lame excuse of the difficulty of digging up witnesses and documents fell flat. It was a poor showing from a country that swears by the rule of law and a bastion of human rights. The victory is testimony that there is no statute of limitation for abuse, horrors of war, and pure criminality and barbarity of some of the colonial soldiers.

In Kenya’s recent history of election-cycle violence, court action is still ongoing and even a dalliance with a Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission. Kenyans have clearly chosen to stay smack in the middle of the path of law. And even in cases cash compensation is sought, Kenyans have borrowed from societies that have been satisfied with an apology and public naming and shaming of perpetrators. It worked wonders in South Africa and Rwanda. Then again, not all societies are the same as there is no one-fit-all remedy.

The Mau Mau veterans have magnanimously refused to gloat in the courtroom win for this is but a Pyrrhic victory with devastating consequences for both sides. It is no secret that Britain and Kenya share excellent relations, right from Queen Elizabeth who is celebrating the 60th anniversary of her coronation, a journey that began right here in Kenya, same year the State of Emergency was proclaimed.

It is right for the veterans to be magnanimous and philanthropic enough not to blame the sins of the fathers on today’s children of Britain. Every generation has its fair share of crackpots, dictators and megalomaniacs.