FORMER chief justice of Kenya, Willy Mutunga, has attacked the British government over its ‘act of gross inhumanity and injustice’ after two Kenyan tribes filed a case against the British government at the European Court of Human Rights last month over alleged colonial abuses.
The Talai and Kipsigis tribes say in the lawsuit that the abuses included torture, mistreatment and theft of land in western Kenya’s Kericho region – one of the most important areas in the world for tea production – which is still owned by big tea companies.
The tribes are seeking $200 billion compensation as well as an apology for the crimes.
‘Today, some of the world’s most prosperous tea companies, like Unilever, Williamson Tea, Finlay’s and Lipton, occupy and farm these lands and continue to use them to generate considerable profits,’ the tribes say in their court filings.
Speaking in an interview with Aljazeera TV station, Mutunga said: ‘If you go to Kericho, they will tell you the British never left.’
The British forced the Talai and Kipsigis tribes off their land in Kericho county to make way for tea farms for white settlers between 1895 to 1963. This led to a mass human rights violation of over half a million people.
The lawsuit also accuses the British army of unlawful killing, rape, torture and imprisonment.
Following the suit, the UK Foreign Office said that it would be ‘inappropriate to comment on legal proceedings.’
‘The fact that the British continue to ignore these claims and just basically dismiss them, is an act of gross inhumanity and injustice,’ Mutunga added.
In the flower gardens of the region, where farm workers for the flower exporters mainly earn less than three dollars a day, workers report of being sexually harassed by their supervisors.
‘If people knew the exploitation of young women in places where these flower plantations exist, they would probably not participate in the celebrations of Valentine’s Day,’ Mutunga said.
The United Nations has also recognised that 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.
However, this is not the first time the issue has sprung up, as in 2013 Britain agreed to pay a settlement compensation of around 30 million dollars to over five thousand Kenyans who the British had tortured and abused.
‘The British should pay reparations, they’ve started doing that, so they should continue,’ Mutunga said.
Following the death of the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, who had claimed to have travelled Africa more than any other person, the Africans have reacted.
‘I cannot mourn,’ one African woman wrote on Twitter, posting an image of what she said was her grandmother’s ‘movement pass’, when free travel was forbidden for Kenyans under British rule in the east African country.
The colonial administration at that time carried out blatant violation of human rights over the African continent, acts, which included torture, sexual assault, castration and discrimination, which still continue to haunt generations of African people.
- Meanwhile in Iran, a Foreign Ministry spokesman has said that Tehran is ready to implement the agreement on the exchange of prisoners with Washington and it is now ‘up to the US administration’ to decide whether or not it wants to keep its end of the deal.
‘We have already voiced our readiness to exchange prisoners with the US, and we are still ready to do so.
‘Negotiations have been conducted over the matter, and parties have reached the necessary agreements. It is now up to the US administration to decide whether it wants to implement this agreement or not.
‘We are prepared to enforce it,’ Nasser Kan’ani told news outlet ISNA in an interview published on Sunday.
The agreement was reached in Vienna on the sidelines of negotiations with world powers concerning the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Tehran has repeatedly said it is ready to exchange prisoners with the United States based on the agreement, and independently of the JCPOA nuclear deal, which the US unilaterally abandoned in May 2018 – despite Iran’s full and strict compliance.
‘Iran never sacrifices political independence for bilateral ties,’ Kan’ani said.
He also underlined that the Islamic Republic will never sacrifice its own political independence for the sake of certain diplomatic relations, and roundly dismissed allegations that Russia is obstructing the Vienna talks on the JCPOA revival and removal of sanctions against Tehran.
‘The Islamic Republic of Iran will not sacrifice its political independence for the sake of (diplomatic) relations with any other countries. The same approach is also being exercised throughout the sanctions removal talks.
‘Russia is a signatory to the JCPOA, and has naturally participated in the negotiation process and made comments,’ he said.
At some point during the efforts to reach an agreement on salvaging the JCPOA, there were claims that Russia was stonewalling the process and blocking the Accord. Both Iran and Russia denied such allegations.
Kan’ani also rejected claims that Russia has asked Iran to delay the agreement until a later time in winter, and that Russia is obstructing the talks in the Austrian capital – stressing that it is the US side that must take responsibility, and contribute to the conclusion of the Accord.
‘The fact that America occasionally tends to level allegations against the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia is simply a blame game,’ Kan’ani said, in fact, ‘Russia and China are facilitating the Vienna negotiations.’
The top Iranian diplomat also stressed that it is Russia and China that are assisting the advancement of the Vienna talks, and that the official positions of Moscow and Beijing are completely in support of reviving the JCPOA negotiations and Tehran’s stance.
‘The US government is the party that left the negotiations, and is now inventing excuses and obstructing the conclusion of the final agreement.
‘It is worth mentioning that the political independence of the Islamic Republic of Iran is so important that it will not be influenced by the political view of any other country,’ Kan’ani said.
The United States, under former president Donald Trump, abandoned the agreement in May 2018 and reinstated unilateral sanctions that the agreement had lifted.
The talks to salvage the agreement kicked off in the Austrian capital Vienna in April last year, months after Joe Biden succeeded Trump, with the intention of ‘examining Washington’s seriousness’ in rejoining the deal and removing anti-Iran sanctions.
Despite notable progress, the US’ indecisiveness and procrastination has caused many interruptions in the marathon talks.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi has also declared that the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation will never bow down to the United States’ bullying behaviour.
Also in the extensive interview with Aljazeera TV, Foreign Office spokesman Kan’ani called on Saudi Arabia to release Iranian national Khalil Dardmand, who was arrested by Saudi state forces while on the Hajj pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca in July. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says his ministry is following upon the case.
Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran in January 2016 after Iranian protesters, enraged by the Saudi execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, stormed its embassy in Tehran.
The kingdom then pursued a confrontational foreign policy toward the Islamic Republic, especially during the administration of former US president Donald Trump, with whom the Saudi rulers shared close ties.
However, Riyadh has recently shown willingness, through diplomatic channels and third parties, to mend fences with Tehran and resume bilateral relations.
The two neighbours also remain deeply divided over a set of regional issues, mainly the Saudi war on Yemen.
