FILE HF-0009
Mau Mau Detention and Torture
Central Kenya (Kikuyu districts), Kenya · 1952–1960
During the 1952–1960 Kenya Emergency, British colonial authorities detained tens of thousands of Kikuyu people without trial in a network of camps later described as "the Pipeline," where torture, forced labor and sexual violence were documented. A 2011–2013 UK High Court case forced the disclosure of thousands of secretly withheld colonial files and led to Britain's first official acknowledgment of and compensation for colonial-era torture.