The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign decided at its provincial meeting to take up the case of the deceased one year old, Unabantu Mali, who died on her grandmothers back last week after being turned away from three clinics in Nyanga, Gugulethu and KTC. Unabantu's grandmother walked from Nyanga East to Gugulethu to KTC, barefoot, seeking help for Unabantu and being rejected at each clinic. She had no money to get to Red Cross hospital.

The electoral campaign in Algeria started officially on Thursday (March 19th), giving candidates until April 6th to convince voters and collect enough support to win the race. From now through the end of the campaign, Algerians will see more of their presidential candidates. They will listen to their platforms; weigh their backgrounds and achievements and challenge their promises with everyday reality. Voters have until the polls open on April 9th to make up their minds

We, the Delft Symphony Residents received an application of eviction from the City of Cape Town. We must appear in the High Court on the 20th of March of 2009 at 10h00. On the 9th of March of 2009 we went to advocates in town, Cliffe, Dekke, Hofmeyr, Number 11, Buitengracht Street, Cape Town, and to the Cape High Court to hand in our notice of intention to defend.

The West African Network for Peacebuilding-Sierra Leone (WANEP-SL) is concerned and completely disturbed about the spate of unprecedented political violence that erupted and continues to erupt in Pujehun, Koidu, Kenema and Freetown leaving properties looted and vandalized thereby leading to abuses and violations of human rights on peaceful and unsuspecting citizens in Sierra Leone.

When we were told that Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga (Principals to the Kenya National Accord) had settled on a Kenya Cabinet size of 43, Mars Group told Kenyans to prepare themselves to pay through their noses, unless Kenyans managed to convince these two men to see what was obvious: That Kenya could not afford such a large Cabinet and that Kenya did not need such a large Cabinet. This very bad start for the Grand Coalition has bust the bank less than 12 months after the Grand Coalition Cabinet was appointed. And for what?

The ubiquitous mobile phone in the hands of millions of Africans working as the primary tool for communication is fast becoming the core technology for supporting social change and the empowerment of citizens. Mobile phones are being used in innovative ways. In agriculture and fishing they are used to provide farmers and fishermen with up-to-date weather reports, prices for their products and transport costs. They are being used to send money, provide rural communities with up-to-date changes in government policy and legislation, enable women to report incidents of domestic violence, to report human rights abuses, send questions to radio phone-in programmes and citizen journalism, to name just a few. In 2007 mobile phones were also used as a monitoring tool during and after three country elections: Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Kenya.

History groans with the suffering caused by authoritarian individuals and regimes that were elected to power. For this reason the only useful measure of the commitment of any political project to democracy is to see how it responds to challenges to its own position and ideas.

Judge Birtukan Mideksa, head of an opposition party in Ethiopia and a truly inspiring figure who is a staunch advocate of human rights, was re-arrested following her refusal to comply with a demand by the Ethiopian government that she revoke a statement she made disclosing that her prior release was not based on a formal legal pardon, but rather a politically negotiated settlement. Judge Mideksa was imprisoned in December 2008.

Helen Zille and the City of Cape Town need to stop trying to score cheap political/elections propaganda points and be honest with the people of Cape Town (see press statement of City of Cape Town below). The so-called ‘water management devices’ are simply pre-paid meters in drag. Like the pre-paid meters which have been declared unconstitutional and illegal by the Johannesburg High Court, these devices dispense the 6000 ‘free’ litres per month/per household and then automatically cut off.

The Radical Youth Network (RYN), along with the Anti Privatisation Forum (APF) strongly condemns the killing of Teboho “Diventsha” Tsotetsi by members of the Sebokeng Community Policing Forum (CPF). It is not the first time the community of Zone 20 in Sebokeng has experienced attacks from the people they claim to be protecting them. Sebokeng Police station has become a haven for thugs and gangsters!

Comrades, as the Landless People's Movement, we were arrested on Sunday 1st March and put in custody and freed on bail of R500 each. We were eight. Our names are Maureen Mnisi, Maas van Wyk, Ivy Seno, Elsie Mkhuma, Shelia Masenodi, Gasa Radebe, Michael Dlamini and Chester Maluleka. One of us is under age (16 years). The case is remanded to the 25th of March. We appreciate your support, even on the 25th

Independent publisher, Écosociété, which published the book "Noir Canada" (Black Canada) that denounces the practices of Canadian gold mining companies in Africa, received a new libel lawsuit for $5 million by Banro Corporation. Écosociété is already confronted with an initial lawsuit for $6 million, launched by Barrick Gold after the book’s publication. According to the publisher, in both cases they consist of a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP).

The Newfields Village community has once again been left in limbo by the Cape Town community housing company (CTCHC) which has stopped repairs to the defective Hanover Park houses, claiming it has no more money. We are baffled by this because even though the city sold off its shares in CTCHC last year, it is still a public entity now owned by the National Housing Finance Corporation which falls under department of housing.

On the 2nd day of March 2009, we, the Delft-Symphony Pavement Dwellers, received a notice from the Sheriff of the Court to appear in the Cape High Court on the 20th of March 2009 at 10h00. After over a year living on the road, the City of Cape Town and the Provincial Government are finally applying for our eviction. The Sheriff delivered the letter and various legal documents with the support of over 20 Metro Police, SAPS and Law Enforcement vehicles and there was a total of over 100 police present with bulletproof vests, guns and various other dangerous items.

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was injured and his wife killed in a car crash today outside Harare, officials from his Movement for Democratic Change party said.

Tsvangirai was with his wife, Susan, a party official and a driver at the time of the crash, the prime minister’s spokesman, James Maridadi, said in a telephone interview from Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. His injuries aren’t believed to be critical, Maridadi said.

Dance music pumps from large speakers while a half dozen shirtless young men serve drinks at a bar bathed in pink light. It is the last weekend of Gay Pride in Cape Town, South Africa, and men of all ages have come to a "fetish party" to launch a safe-sex campaign, "Play Nice", targeting men who have sex with men (MSM).

The Africa Democracy Forum (ADF), a network of over 450 democracy and human rights organizations throughout Africa, expresses its solidarity with courageous civil society groups in Zimbabwe as a number of political, social, economic, and humanitarian challenges still face the country’s critical transitional period.

© THE NATURE OF THE MAU MAU CLAIM

The Kenya Land and Freedom Army (Mau Mau) claim relates to torture and the cruel and degrading treatment of detainees perpetrated by the Kenyan colonial government during the state of emergency (1952–60). It is a tortious claim based on negligence and will be instituted in the British High Court. The claimants are seeking compensation for personal injuries sustained while in detention camps of the Kenya Colonial Government which operated under the authority of Her Majesty’s Government (HMG). The proposed claims are based on the tort of negligence. It is alleged that HMG is liable not only because of actions of the Kenyan colonial government, but also for its failure to take any or adequate steps to prevent the widespread use of torture that it knew was being perpetrated in its name.

CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES

The campaign’s objectives are as follows:

- Institute proceedings against the HMG in the British High Court with a view to achieve a ruling compelling HMG to pay reparations to Mau Mau torture survivors
- Build local and global awareness on the Mau Mau claim for reparations
- Energise ongoing efforts for recognition of Kenyan heroes and heroines
- Implant the tools for comprehensive transitional justice in Kenya.

VISION OF THE KENYA HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION (KHRC)

The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) will this year file a representative suit in the British High Court on behalf of the survivors of the Mau Mau struggle, seeking reparations from HMG for atrocities committed against the Mau Mau during the state of emergency period (1952–60).

The Mau Mau, an indigenous anti-colonial movement, struggled valiantly for Kenya’s independence, won from the British in 1963. The armed struggle raised the cost of colonisation, forcing the British to hand over power to Africans. During the armed struggle, atrocities were inflicted on the Mau Mau and the African communities that supported them. These atrocities have been well-documented by historians. Routine preventive detention, systematic denial of due process guarantees, summary killings, torture, beatings, rape, forced labour, destruction of property, forced evictions, villageisation, and other forms of pillage defined British policy against the Mau Mau during the emergency. It is estimated that perhaps 160,000 Kenyans passed through the ’moral rearmament’ corrective program (or ‘The Pipeline’), in order to renounce the Mau Mau oath, which was the stated justification of preventive detention.

The extent to which thousands upon thousands of Africans were killed, maimed or displaced during the emergency has only come to be appreciated in recent years. Despite the scale and severity of these atrocities, the British and successive African governments in Kenya, including the present government, have refused to either acknowledge these barbaric abuses or provide relief to the survivors. In fact, there has been a conspiracy of silence between the British and various Kenyan governments. Today, national amnesia threatens to bury the history of one of Africa’s most brilliant anti-colonial struggles.

The KHRC believes that the legacy of the Mau Mau is inextricably linked to the reform of the Kenyan state. In particular, the KHRC believes that the Mau Mau Reparations and Recognition Campaign will play a key role in addressing the long standing problems of impunity for past abuses, developing a basis for implanting the tools and instruments of transitional justice in Kenya, and buoying the efforts to litigate against the atrocities committed in the name of colonialism. It is not credible, nor is it defensible, to argue that the post-colonial Kenyan state can be reformed without a proper accounting for colonial atrocities, the most poignant of which involved the Mau Mau. Even the task force on a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) for Kenya, led by KHRC Chair Professor Makau Mutua recommended that a special investigation be conducted to establish culpability for abuses committed in the colonial period.

As a part of its transitional justice programme – looking into and seeking justice for past abuses –the KHRC established the Mau Mau Reparations and Recognition Campaign. It is clear to the KHRC that the recovery of the memory and honour of the Mau Mau would have enormous implications for human rights, social justice and democracy in Kenya and Africa as a whole. What is more, the Mau Mau reparations case provides an opportunity to broaden the debate on reparations for slavery and colonialism in general. This is critical at a time in which the West is focused on debt reduction and forgiveness, as though these cleanse the atrocities committed in Africa through slavery, colonialism and the Cold War.

The KHRC’s position is that reparations are due to Africa for these ills, and should not be viewed as charitable donations out of the kindness of the West. Reparations cannot be traded off for debt reduction or cancellation.

IMPORTANT CAMPAIGN MILESTONES

Objective 1: Institute proceedings in the British High Court with a view to achieving a ruling compelling HMG to pay reparations to Mau Mau torture survivors

On 4 October 2006, the KHRC and its United Kingdom-based legal team, Leigh Day & Co solicitors, submitted a letter of claim to Margaret Beckett, the British foreign secretary, formally presenting their intention to sue HMG for the torture it inflicted upon the Mau Mau. The letter, which outlined some of the evidence gathered so far, also requested that HMG accept responsibility for those atrocities. Subsequently, on 2 April 2007, HMG’s solicitors responded to the letter and stated that should proceedings be issued in court, and that it would defend itself against the claims on the grounds of (a) British limitation laws and (b) laws of state succession and related case law on who is the appropriate defendant. The nature of the response, and previous statements by the British High Commission in Nairobi, indicate that HMG will ‘defend itself vigorously’ in the matter of the Mau Mau claim.

Objective 2: Build local and global awareness on the Mau Mau claim for reparations

In June 2007, the KHRC sent a team of three human rights experts to the UK where they spent a week cultivating contacts in the British media and making logistical arrangements with the support of Kenyans and human rights organisations for the implementation of a programme of events originally planned for the Suit Filing Week in February 2008. In the UK, the KHRC has the support of Fahamu, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Kenya Community Abroad (KCA) and Mobilization for Economic Growth (MEGA)-UK chapter among others.

In May 2006, the KHRC embarked on a campaign to directly influence opinion makers in both Kenya and the UK to bring pressure to bear on HMG to accept responsibility for the obvious atrocities it inflicted upon Kenyans during the state of emergency. Most of local media institutions were supportive and have partnered with the KHRC to bring the desired publicity to the suit. Some of the international media institutions that have reported on the campaign specifically, and the Mau Mau generally, include but are not limited to Associated Press, The Guardian, The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the British Broadcasting Corporation, Al Jazeera, British Sky Broadcasting and Reuters.

Objective 3: Energise ongoing efforts for recognition of Kenyan heroes

No law has been enacted or issued officially proclaiming any Kenyan figure as a national hero. But owing to their significant roles in the process of nation-building and contributions to history, there needs to be laws enacted and proclamations issued honouring these heroes and heroines. Towards this end, the KHRC continues to play an instrumental role in the work of the Task Force on National Heroes/Heroines, which is situated in the Ministry of National Heritage (office of the vice president) as well as the national museums of Kenya’s National Exhibition on Kenya’s Struggle for Independence Project.

Objective 4: Implant the tools for comprehensive transitional justice in Kenya

The KHRC has consistently maintained that the only way to address the atrocities by post-colonial Kenyan governments lies in looking into Kenya’s painful colonial history. The KHRC is aware that many of the problems in the post-colonial Kenyan state – impunity for public officials, despotism by government, atrocities by the police and security officials, the culture of corruption, landlessness, and steep gender inequities – are either a legacy of colonialism, or were exacerbated by it.

These problems were not confined to any one region or community or even one country. Indeed, a successful investigation and accounting of the Mau Mau question in addition to the atrocities of former European colonial powers would start the process of national healing and help consolidate quest for democratisation in Africa. Consequently, the KHRC is organising the Conference on Reparations for Colonial Injustices against African People, which will bring together historians, activists and media practitioners to share ideas on this complex issue.

THE ENVISIONED LEGAL PROCESS

Issue of proceedings: HMG is required to respond to the proceedings instituted as soon as these are issued. There are two possibilities for HMG, which would form part of the preliminary phase of any eventual, full hearing:
a) It may formally apply to the British High Court to file a defence based on existing limitation laws in Britain, or;
b) It may formally apply to the courts to file a defence based on the laws of state succession, namely, that the post-independence Kenyan state inherited the liabilities of the British colonial state and, therefore argue that the post-independence Kenyan State, and not HMG, should be held to account for colonial-era atrocities.

Preliminary hearings: Should the first option apply, the court may set a date for a preliminary hearing a few months from the time of issuing of proceedings. Some questions that may arise are:
- How will this hearing be conducted?
- Will the court require evidence from both sides at this stage?
- What kind of evidence will this be? Would expert witnesses appear at this stage?

Based on the court’s assessment of what is brought before it during the preliminary hearings, there could be two results:
1) The court may find that the matter came before the courts after a very long period of time and it would be prejudicial to HMG to defend itself, or;
2) The evidence may be so compelling as to cause the court to lift the limitation law and allow the case to come to trial some months after the preliminary phase.

Trial phase: It is instructive that if the court takes the second decision, it would effectively be declaring that the suit does indeed have merit. However, either side would have the right to appeal the High Court’s decision in the British Court of Appeal, should they be dissatisfied with the court’s decision about whether or not the case goes to trial.

ELOISE MUKAMI DEDAN KIMATHI AS THE LEADER OF MAU MAU DELEGATION TO BRITAIN

‘It is better to die on our feet that to live on our knees’
Dedan Kimathi

On 18 February 1957, having been charged and convicted as a terrorist, Mau Mau Field Marshall Dedan Kimathi was hanged, his remains buried in an unmarked grave, possibly at the Kamiti maximum prison near Nairobi. To this day, his remains are unaccounted for, though it is highly probable that HMG, which executed him and certainly disposed of his remains, is in possession of information that may enable their discovery. It is believed that HMG was attempting to avoid a situation in which Kimathi’s burial site would be turned into a shrine for the Mau Mau and Kenyans, hence the secrecy with which his execution and burial were carried out.

For almost 50 years now, the family of the late Kimathi and Kenyans have been denied the right to honour him by giving him a decent state burial, which he and they deserve. Though living in a condition of destitution, Mukami Kimathi, his widow, has worked tirelessly to support the cause of the Mau Mau for recognition while being involved in activism aimed at compelling the Kenyan and British authorities to disclose information about the whereabouts of Dedan Kimathi’s remains. Consequently, the KHRC has invited Kimathi and a member of her family to lead the Mau Mau delegation in London.

Between 2001 and 2003, the family of the late Kimathi and the Kimathi Movement held a series of meetings with political leaders and bureaucrats at the home, health and justice and constitutional affairs ministries seeking their intervention in the matter of the hero’s remains. However, these officials did not act, compelling the Kimathi Movement to approach the Nairobi-based British High Commission, which was equally unhelpful. Undeterred, the family of the late Kimathi and the Kimathi Movement continued to popularise its goals by celebrating Kimathi’s life and struggles each year on the anniversary of his execution, 18 February. While the Kimathi Movement no longer exists, the KHRC remains committed to carrying out the noble initiative and will support Kimathi’s goal to follow up the matter directly with the head of state of the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II.

PRINCIPAL PARTNERS IN THE CAMPAIGN

- The Mau Mau War Veterans’ Association (MMWVA) – the only officially registered Mau Mau advocacy group with the political clout, drive and capacity to pursue such a complex legal-political and historical affair such as the reparations suit and heroes’ recognition agenda
- Kenya Oral History Centre – offers expert advice on the history of the colonial government in Kenya and for making contacts with Mau Mau
- Awaaz – Kenya south Asians history magazine
- Paul Muite & Co advocates – lead counsel for Mau Mau reparations suit and link institution to Human Rights Matrix Chambers
- Mbugua Mureithi & Co advocates – offers expert advice on evidentiary matters such as development of claimants’ statements
- KCA-UK – a North America-based Kenyan diaspora umbrella group
- Fahamu – UK-based human rights organisation assisting with publicity and networking with progressive individuals and institutions
- Caroline Elkins, Faculty of African Studies, Harvard University – Mau Mau historian and advisor on colonial history, Kenyan heroes and reparations
- David Anderson, Oxford University – Mau Mau historian and advisor on colonial history, Kenyan heroes and reparations
- Leigh Day & Co advocates – lead counsel for Mau Mau reparations suit and link institutions to Human Rights Matrix Chambers.

* Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) is based in Nairobi. For more information about the Mau Mau reparations campaign, please contact .
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.

cc The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), in partnership with Royal Media Services, has embarked on a seven-week media blitz consisting of television, radio and print publicity beginning 24 February 2008.

The campaign is built on the platform of the programme Trilogy: Black Man’s Land: Images of Colonization and Independence produced and directed by Anthony Howarth and David Koff, written by David Koff and narrated by Msindo Mwinyipembe. KHRC will further support the series in screening its production of Itungati – the Mau Mau story, a production of Themescape Ltd.

A group of young people from impoverished urban areas in Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana, will set off on a gruelling trek to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro under the United Nations banner to draw attention to the effects of climate change. Ten underprivileged youth will join 25 other people from the private and public sectors in the fourth annual ascent to the “rooftop of Africa” organized by the Kilimanjaro Initiative, a Nairobi-based non-governmental organization (NGO), in partnership with the “UNite to Combat Climate Change” global campaign.