The full horror of a brutal campaign of torture meted out by British officials on Kenyan rebels including Barack Obama's grandfather has emerged for the first time. A cache of secret documents detailing efforts to suppress the Mau Mau uprising has lain hidden in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in London, for 50 years.
Removed from Kenya on the cusp of independence, they were uncovered in January after five Kenyans launched a lawsuit against the British government.
The claimants say they suffered castration, sexual abuse and severe beatings in detention camps administered by the British government and want an apology and financial compensation.
Obama's grandfather Hussein Onyango Obama was rounded up in 1949 in the very early days of the rebellion and spent two years in a high security prison.
Once a cook for a British officer, his family claim Mr Obama was horrifically tortured, whipped every morning and evening until he confessed.
His third wife Sarah Onyango said white jailers would squeeze his testicles with parallel metallic rods and pierce his nails and buttocks with pins.
Mr Obama, whose involvement with the rebellion has never been clear, was left permanently scarred and bitterly anti-British.
His account tallies with the experiences of the five elderly Kenyans now suing the British government. Read More
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