The Mau Mau litigation: fear is not a personal injury – UK Human Rights Blog

Posted August 8th, 2018 in colonies, Kenya, limitations, news, personal injuries, torture by tracey

‘Kimathi & Ors v Foreign and Commonwealth Office [2018] EWHC 1305 (QB). Stewart J has recently dismissed the first test case in this group litigation, in which over 40,000 Kenyans bring claims for damages against the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, alleging abuse during the Kenyan Emergency of the 1950s and early 1960s, in Kimathi & Others v The Foreign and Commonwealth Office [2018] EWHC 2066 (QB). Jo Moore discusses this in her blog post of 6 August 2018.

Earlier this year however he considered, as a preliminary matter, whether fear, caused either by the tort of negligence or trespass, amounts to personal injury so that the Court has the discretionary power to exclude the 3-year limitation period which arises under section 11 of the 1980 Act. Stewart J concluded that “despite the comprehensive and innovative submissions of the Claimants” (para 37), which included arguments on human rights grounds, fear did not amount to a personal injury.’

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UK Human Rights Blog, 7th August 2018

Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com