"I made it my mission to help the Kenyan people…at times, that meant going against my peers and even against my orders but I felt I had to act in accordance with my conscience. Today, I feel the truth of what happened during Kenya Emergency must be understood and that the Kenyans who suffered from colonial brutality must at last be offered justice.”

So ended John Nottingham’s witness statement of 2010 in the case of colonial torture during Kenya’s pre-Independence State of Emergency brought on behalf of the Mau Mau War Veterans’ Association (MMWVA) by the Kenya Human Rights Commission, Leigh Day and Doughty Street Chambers against the British government.

Nottingham, a former District Officer with the colonial government, passed away last week, just short of what would have been his 90th birthday. He is survived by his wife, Joyce Muthoni, three daughters and a son. He succeeded in his life by the fact that his determination and insistence paid off.

Many individuals and organisations — both in Kenya and abroad — contributed to the case by the MMWVA but the two moral touchstones were Mzee Gitu Kahengeri, secretary-general of the MMWVA and Nottingham as representatives of the formerly oppressed and the former oppressor respectively.

Nottingham was posted to Kenya in 1952, just as the State of Emergency was taking effect: “I visualised then that my job as a District Officer in Kenya would be like that of a secular missionary…to improve schools, the African court system and…community development.”

Suffice it to say that the job was not what he had expected. His mind was opened to the grievances about land that underlay the armed struggle. He became an advocate for Kenya’s Independence.

Life mission

He made it his mission to expose what had happened to Kenyans under colonial rule. Having hosted JM Kariuki just prior to Independence, he ensured the publication of Kariuki’s book, Mau Mau Detainee. He then co-authored The Myth of Mau Mau, which situated the armed struggle as a legitimate nationalist movement.

He went on to found Transafrica Press, to publish Kenyan authors addressing the many difference strands of the Independence movement.

Because of the case by MMWV, the British Government installed a national monument at Uhuru Park’s Freedom in Nairobi as part of their restitution for the torture committed during the colonial period; they paid out monetary compensation and offered an apology to torture survivors and Kenya received a the official documentation of the Emergency period, copies of which had been removed from the Kenya National Archives and burnt just prior to Independence. We have a history rewritten as to that period.

Nottingham’s family can rightfully claim this as his legacy. No government bestowed him the highest possible honours but MMWVA members on whose behalf he worked for so long and so hard, the academic and human rights community who had the privilege of working with him on the colonial torture case did that.

Nottingham was not satisfied by the case’s framing or results and wanted restitution for those dispossessed of their land. He has left us that task.

It behoves us as a nation to remember and honour his memory by recording it in our individual and collective consciousness. May he rest in peace.

L. Muthoni Wanyeki is the Africa director of the Open Society Foundations. [email protected]