@newspaperarticle {67801,
	title = {Strong Evidence},
	year = {2011},
	month = {Aug 3, 2011},
	publisher = {Harvard Gazette},
	abstract = {The work of a Harvard history 
professor has bolstered the case of a group of elderly Kenyans who are 
seeking reparations from the British government for rape, castration, 
beatings, and other abuses that they say were part of systematic 
colonial-era efforts to suppress Kenya{\textquoteright}s Mau Mau uprising.The case passed a critical milestone in July when a British judge 
allowed it to move forward despite government arguments that, if the 
abuses happened, the current government isn{\textquoteright}t liable for colonial 
transgressions.The Kenyans are former detainees in British prison camps set up 
during the 1950s Mau Mau rebellion, which set the stage for Kenyan 
independence in 1963. The plaintiffs allege that their abuse came at the
 hands of British jailers in what was a systematic and 
government-sanctioned campaign to break the rebellion.Though there had been talk of reparations for colonial atrocities for years, the case was given new life by Professor Caroline Elkins{\textquoteright} Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain{\textquoteright}s Gulag in Kenya.
 The book, published in 2005, blended government documents and 
eyewitness accounts to tell a compelling story of a horrific, systematic
 campaign by the British colonial government to crush the rebellion not 
only in the field, but through abuse of those held in camps around the 
country.{\textquotedblleft}Caroline{\textquoteright}s work has been absolutely fundamental to the case,{\textquotedblright} said Daniel Leader, a barrister for the London law firm Leigh Day \&amp; Co.,
 which is representing the former Kenyan detainees. {\textquotedblleft}She was uniquely 
responsible for beginning to change the public{\textquoteright}s understanding of that 
period in history{\textellipsis}.The victims are forever in her debt. She put their 
stories on the map.{\textquotedblright}It was Elkins{\textquoteright} work, Leader said, that indicated that the abuse was 
not only systematic, but known by the British government in London.George Morara, program officer for the Kenya Human Rights Commission,
 which has worked to identify plaintiffs who could bring the case before
 the courts, said that Elkins{\textquoteright} research built an important foundation 
that allowed the case to move forward.{\textquotedblleft}Without her seminal work,{\textquotedblright} Morara said, {\textquotedblleft}this story wouldn{\textquoteright}t have come to the fore.{\textquotedblright}Elkins{\textquoteright} critics, however, have charged that, though there may have 
been abuses in the system, there was no systematic effort by the 
government to abuse detainees.The July 21 ruling denied a motion to dismiss the case on the grounds
 that the current British government has no responsibility for actions 
by the colonial government in Kenya. While the judge didn{\textquoteright}t rule on the 
merits of the case itself, the decision represents a key victory for the
 former detainees.{\textquotedblleft}I have decided that the claimants have arguable cases, fit for 
trial,{\textquotedblright} High Court Judge Richard McCombe wrote in a summary explaining 
his judgment. {\textquotedblleft}I emphasize that I have not found that there was 
systematic torture in the Kenyan camps nor that, if there was, the U.K. 
government is liable to detainees, such as the claimants, for what 
happened. . . . I decided that the FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office]
 have not established that the claimants are bound to fail.{\textquotedblright}The decision sets up a hearing on a second government motion to 
dismiss the case, Elkins said, this one based on a statute of 
limitations for such cases. The court can make exceptions to the statute
 of limitations, however, and Leader said the plaintiffs will use 
examples of other atrocities cases that have been prosecuted long after 
the acts were committed to illustrate that a fair trial is possible. 
Should the case clear that hurdle, expected in early 2012, Elkins 
expects the trial itself to begin next spring or summer.In addition to revelations contained in {\textquotedblleft}Imperial Reckoning,{\textquotedblright} Elkins 
and two other historians acting as expert witnesses have submitted 
lengthy reports to the court; they{\textquoteright}re also reviewing thousands of pages 
of previously undisclosed, colonial-era documents the government has 
brought forward because of the case. Elkins said the experts{\textquoteright} review of 
these documents has already yielded numerous memoranda that further 
substantiate both her thesis of systematized violence and the witness 
testimony she collected recounting abuse and torture in the camps.For Elkins, the court decision and the new documents substantiating 
her work provide a bit of vindication. Though her book garnered a great 
deal of praise in the U.S., winning the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for general 
nonfiction, it was also attacked in both Britain and Kenya as inaccurate
 and based on unreliable witness testimony.Elkins said she{\textquoteright}s grateful for those at Harvard who stood by her 
while, as a graduate student, she worked on her dissertation, which was 
the basis for {\textquotedblleft}Imperial Reckoning,{\textquotedblright} and when, as a junior faculty 
member, she endured the attacks on her work.In 2006, Morara and the Kenya Human Rights Commission began 
interviewing veterans in hopes of bringing a case to British courts. 
Three men and two women were chosen, one of whom, Susan Ciong{\textquoteright}ombe 
Ngondi, has since died.~ The four remaining plaintiffs, Ndiku Mutua, 
Paulo Nzili, Wambugu Wa Nyingi, and Jane Muthoni Mara, are all elderly, 
in their 70s and 80s. The case was filed in 2009.The case itself seeks an apology from the British government for 
abuse in the camps and establishment of a welfare system for former 
detainees, some of whom, Leader said, were unable to have children due 
to their treatment. In Kenya{\textquoteright}s traditional culture, where children 
provide for their elderly parents, detainees{\textquoteright} inability to have a family
 leaves them with little means of support, he said.From a historian{\textquoteright}s viewpoint, the case is one of what actually 
happened versus what people say happened, Elkins said. The government 
and its supporters have dismissed the firsthand testimony and eyewitness
 accounts of those who suffered, compounding what occurred in the 
detention camps decades ago.{\textquotedblleft}It{\textquoteright}s now a duel between colonial-inspired history and revisionist 
history,{\textquotedblright} Elkins said. {\textquotedblleft}On top of it all, some have called the people 
who survived these horrific tortures liars. The British government 
behaved badly in Kenya, and many have continued to do so in an effort to
 conceal or minimize colonial abuses.{\textquotedblright}\&nbsp;},
	url = {http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/?p=87188\&utm_source=SilverpopMailing\&utm_medium=email\&utm_campaign=08_04_11\%2520\%281\%29\&utm_content=},
	author = {Elkins, Caroline M.}
}
