Leaders want UK to pay for Nandi losses

Nandi County Governor Cleophas Lagat during a past meeting at his office in Kapsabet town on July 1, 2013. Photo/JARED NYATAYA

What you need to know:

  • The community accuses Britain of killing more than 10,000 people, burning houses and grabbing thousands of hectares of land and dishing it out to multinationals.

The Nandi county government wants Britain to pay the local community for the lives and property lost during resistance against colonial rule.

According to Governor Cleophas Lagat, the community is assembling lawyers to sue and seek compensation from the British Government for their loss.

Atrocities committed by colonialists against the Nandi, Dr Lagat said, should not go unpunished.

“For justice to prevail, the county government is seeking support from the Senate and Nandi County Assembly to pass legislation and set up a team of competent lawyers to pursue the case against Britain,” he said on Wednesday.

He assured residents that justice will be done as his government will not rest until the matter is addressed.

The community accuses Britain of killing more than 10,000 people, burning houses and grabbing thousands of hectares of land and dishing it out to multinationals.

Dr Lagat said his government would hold a stakeholders’ consultative forum to drum up support for the case.

Speaking during the swearing-in of eight members of county public service board, Dr Lagat said they would take a two-pronged approach to the case — seeking compensation from Britain and filing the case in an international court.

Nandi MPs led by Mr Alfred Ketter are seeking compensation claiming that multinationals have “been taking away all their profits” instead of assisting locals.

Mr Ketter and team of 12 MPs from North Rift have chastised tea companies operating in Nandi, saying they occupy huge their land allocated by the British colony.