To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will instigate a public inquiry into the conduct of the British colonial administration in Kenya during the 1950s emergency in that country; what recent representations his Department has received on the treatment of Kenyans by the British colonial administration in this period from (a) (i) Governments and (ii) citizens of Kenya and (b) others; and if he will make a statement. (286846)

There is no public inquiry planned into the conduct of the British colonial administration in Kenya during the 1950s.

We are aware that a group of Mau Mau veterans, backed by the Kenya Human Rights Commission, plan to sue the Government for alleged human rights abuses carried out by the Kenyan colonial administration during the emergency period. Our high commissioner in Nairobi met their representatives before they travelled to London last month and noted their right to take their case to the courts. They have also written to my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on this issue.