No wonder the Mau Mau were short-changed!

The Man Raila Amolo Odinga is a unique personality with a big heart. He wasted his time in detention for the sake of creating a free space for the ordinary Kenyans, and lobbied for the Mau Mau payout, but all the same the people of Kenya did not reject him on election and so his predicaments will be avenged by the heavenly Father

Go ahead and create a religion around him maybe you will get some converts. Why can't you move on, leaders and people will always come and go, stop this hail Raila Amolo Oginga son of Odinga chant, let the gentleman do his thing, he doesn't need any sympathy as he rightly stated,he is still a leader even in his diminished status.

Sufkim, why are you hurting; you have not moved on? Are you being choked with guilt of stolen victory? You need the that old time religion John is suggesting.

Two points to make here:

1. While I'm all for reparations for those wronged, I wonder if Poland can now sue Germany for WW2. Or perhaps going further, UK can sue Italy for the Roman empire and Indians can sue Greece for Alexander the great.......The real question is, where do we draw the line. Do you punish the child (modern day UK) for his father's (colonial UK govt.) greed and selfishness?

2. Don't expect imperialists to fork out regularly. In my opinion, £20 million pounds is cheap change for a country like UK. Kenya got £81 million in aid in 2011 from UK, more than X 4 the total amount given to the Maumau torture victims

Germany paid war reparations to Poland for WWII aggression. In addition, do not forget that the German-Polish boarder was moved westwards to the Oder River. Germany is still paying reparations to Israel. Oh yes, the British must pay for past crimes and greed!

its why huru shoukd /will return land stolen by his orrupt father.

This is the monetary compensation. Why didn't the GOK assign land to maumau vets upon independence?

actually the mau mau victims should be made public

I highly suspect if this guys would not have taken that deal, the case would have been dragged on for eons and all these guys would have been dead, thats probably one of the reasons they accepted the amount. Politicizing this between Raila and Uhuruto will not make matters more civilized or productive!

Good job.

Kudos RAO but methinks the one who deserve this kind of praise is non other than Hon. Paul Mwite who has triumphantly fought for the case.... though they will get peanuts its better than none

Why are you such a downer?... Just Give credit where its due.... stop hating on the Man. Raila and Paul MUITE (not mwite) fought for this end. Raila negotiated this deal as a Kenyan, not as a Luo or a Kikuyu or a Kamba. stop your xenophobia my dear.

Anyone who says anything against Raila to you has hatred,that a pretty narrow way to define the word hatred. Raila had nothing to do with the whole saga,but as a politician he just cashed in some political capital by scuttling the deal.In other words he sunk the ship to the advantage of our former colonial masters.I agree he did not negotiate the deal as a Luo or a Kikuyu or a Kamba, but for the British.

All that was is for trying to get votes, come on dont say you never realised that. Real politics man>>>

Maybe

this is the mark of a true leadership. He helped and there was really nothing in it for him. Kudos Hon Raila

ICC is more internal than protecting external wounds.AMAZING!!!!!!!

What did the current president do?

Didnt need to do anything he had the votes.

His father was complicit in the silence after independence so I guess he is quite embarassed. Remember we accepted a deal under Mzee which said 'forgive and forget' and urged the Mau Mau to form land-buying companies to buy back land that had been stolen/seized from them during colonial times. Any mention of the real freedom fighters became anathema after that and is really the reason why the very vocal J M Kariuki (a real freedom fighter) was not very popular with the Kenyatta Snr administration.

stop the blaming.... A true leader will help the other with little expectations of reward. It dont matter who did it. all that matters is that Raila helped out. I am sure the president could have but you have to understand he has a lot on his plate.

Tongue in cheek and read between the lines/.

Where were they when their counterparts were demanding for the compensation?

Perhaps if the case had gone to full trial, the payout would have been more substantial and better yet, provide necessary precedent for any other people who were tortured by the British empire. Thanks RAO.

wonders never ceaze

How many times did he seek the court to be set up inn Kenya and Uhuru vigorously campaigned to go to the Hague? Have you been around just for a year?

Humans tend to forget real easy huh? Look Willie if history stands correct, it was Raila that tried to have the cases solved right here in the country about 4 years ago but the same people who are in power were the ones who opted for the Hague. Come on remove the cobwebs off your brain

Well I guess they are innocent thats why dont be vague go to the hague.But something went wrong.!!!

This is a new MARK on experience of PM Oginga.. HEP HEP HURRAH!!! R,O Juu!!!

Use the comprehensive list of detained Mau Mau veterans
from the British colonial office archives recently released.

300,000/- a piece isn't even a decent motorbike. These Mau Mau got a raw deal.

Yea! in this day and age 1 billion goes nowhere, we need more.

With or without Raila's letters maumau veterans were still going to be compensated .sh he shouldn't take any credit.

Why are some people so thankless? if it would have been Uhuru's hand that led to this payout would you have said the same thankless ,insensitive and mean things??

just ignore them

now lets see the new government give the freedom fighters some land they fought for. Mambo ya willing buyer willing seller hatutaki kuskia

Hijacking a people's course to gain political mileage. While the intent is good, the end product is a watered down prize which is more humiliating than the original abuses. Where on earth can you pay one $3,200 for crimes that incapacitated people for the whole life.

And am quite sure not all of these guys were tortured but each will at least pocket a few coins into their pocket. Do they have any evidence that they were tortured??? And why are we shouting so loud, our own brothers and sisters (IDPs) haven't seen a cent for the government, what do we say about this??????

While I don't have a problem with the diplomacy of RAO, I have a problem with the out of court settlement. The court case would have given an opportunity to the veterans and many more that died, to have their day in court. Exposing the evils and the atrocities that was meted to poor Africans whose only crime was fighting for their country land. This would have helped to rewrite the history of Kenya. Now those that died will never get justice because the whole issue will be swept under the carpet and will be forgotten. This case would have served to expose who these foreign masters really are, with their "holier than thou" attitude. Now we will never know.

Who needs this biased history anyway?? Why do we hear only about mau mau when all tribes in kenya fought the colonialists?? How much is Mekatilili and the others who are not mau mau getting?? Nothing, these mount kenya old men and women should be glad of what they are getting and let us not talk about history!

All the more reasons why we should talk history.We can at least come to understand the contributions of heros like Tom Mboya, Mekatilili, Kimathi, among others. It appears you are not proud of the history of your country, you would rather learn about the French revolution and the American civil war than understand the fight to liberate your country from the colonialists.That is what the white man intended for you, you are a product of the white man's hype. Patriotism and national cohesion will continue to evade if we continue to perpetuate such BS.

Some people would argue that the court case would have taken forever, and argue that the veterans have a little time to live, but the point is, it is not about the veterans being paid money, they have lived all these years without it. The purpose of the proceedings would have been to expose the atrocities of the British imperialists, the remaining number of veterans is just a part of a very large population that was disenfranchised and their lives altered forever, hence the truth would have served them better than being given tidbits. Man shall not live by bread alone....

A court process could have taken forever.The victims have less than 20 years to live

All what you needs now is to trans-tribe in to a Kiuk and the rest will be smooth sailing all the way Mr all that is good in Kenya

Can you say that again lauder so those tribalists who's only agenda is to "deal decisively," deny RAO access to the VIP lounge, and humiluate him can hear? So what you gonna say about that? Your guess is highlighted allover. Tribalism as usual!!

ok

Classic Raila is. Always bending over to white people and foreigners and protecting their interests so he can live to be president one day. Asking people who stole from us and killed our people to pay a token out of court so as to cover up their atrocities in Kenya is pathetic. Oh we need to crucify the Kikuyu because they were enterprising, and visionary enough to buy and utilize land for the good of this country's economy, but Oh you can't touch the white folks.

well stated and quite accurate description of who Raila is and accurate analysis of his unwavering subservience to the white people. He is nature of pandering to the whites is quite appalling.