Kenya torture claims ruling due

Jane Muthoni Mara said she felt "completely and utterly violated" after sexual torture.

She is demanding compensation for her suffering.

Jane said: "I want the British citizens of today to know what their forefathers did to me and to so many others. These crimes cannot go unpunished and forgotten."

Mr Nyingi said he had brought the case because he wanted the world to know about the years he had lost and "what was taken from a generation of Kenyans".

He said: "If I could speak to the Queen I would say that Britain did many good things in Kenya but that they also did many bad things."

"I do not hold her personally responsible but I would like the wrongs which were done to me and other Kenyans to be recognised by the British Government so that I can die in peace."

Mr Nyingi, 84, said he was arrested on Christmas Eve 1952 and detained for about nine years.

During that time, he was beaten unconscious in an incident in 1959 at Hola camp in which 11 men were clubbed to death.

He says he still bears marks from leg manacles, whipping and caning.

Three victims of torture during the Mau Mau uprising in 1950s Kenya have given evidence to the High Court in their bid to win damages from Britain.

Wambugu Wa Nyingi, Paulo Muoka Nzili and Jane Muthoni Mara spoke through interpreters as they were briefly questioned about statements they had provided.

The Government has argued that too much time has passed to allow a fair trial over alleged atrocities by British authorities in Kenya in the 1950s.

Guy Mansfield QC said the Foreign and Commonwealth Office faced "irredeemable difficulties" with witnesses and documents to defend the claim.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called on the government to show "magnanimity and compassion" towards elderly Kenyans fighting for damages over alleged colonial atrocities during the Mau Mau uprising.

In a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron he accuses the government of continuing to refuse to deal with "these elderly torture victims with the dignity they deserve".

He adds: "It is high time that the British government showed some magnanimity and compassion."

• 1952 - Mau Mau uprising against white settlers
• 1960 - uprising quashed by British colonial government
• 1963 - Kenya gained independence
• 2009 - Papers in test case first served on UK
• April 2012 - 'Migrated archive' detailing the British role in uprising made public

Three Kenyans who claim they were tortured by British colonial authorities during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s will make their case for damages at the High Court today.

Hundreds of Kenyans have made similar claims, but these three are the only ones to be told they have a chance of winning. Their case rests in part on an archive of 8,000 secret filed that were spirited out of the country when Kenya gained its independence in 1963.

The British Government is expected to argue that the claims are time-barred and that the window of opportunity is shut.