Unveiling Operation Legacy: Rewriting Kenya's Hidden History

In 2009, a group of five Kenyan individuals embarked on a petition to the British Prime Minister's office, seeking reparation for human rights abuses endured during the 1950s, when Kenya was under British colonial rule. Despite their vivid accounts and physical scars, their testimonies were initially undermined due to the lack of documentary evidence. However, the subsequent discovery of thousands of secret files shed light on a widespread colonial British policy known as Operation Legacy. This policy involved the destruction or removal of incriminating documentation by British colonial officers in the years leading up to former colonies' independence.

Initially, suspicions arose when a historian joined the trial as an expert witness in 2010, attesting to the existence of missing documents and noting that Kenya had repeatedly requested the return of stolen papers, which the British government had refused. Following a court order to release relevant documents, British officials reluctantly admitted that 1,500 significant files were held in a high-security archive. These files turned out to be just a small fraction of the documents hidden between the 1950s and 70s. Over the course of the trial from 2010 to 2013, an independent historian uncovered more than 20,000 previously hidden Operation Legacy files from 37 former colonies. Additionally, an estimated 1.2 million colonial files, covering vast distances in the archive's "Special Collections," were exposed.

The true extent of the destruction of documents and the information they contained remains unknown. The trial revealed that around 3.5 tons of colonial documents were scheduled for incineration in Kenya alone. Operation Legacy's objective was to obscure critical aspects of the truth, as illustrated by the words of Britain's attorney-general in Kenya, stating, "If we are going to sin, we must sin quietly."

The historical context surrounding Kenya's experience with British colonialism further elucidates the significance of Operation Legacy. Beginning in 1895, the British administration forcibly displaced people from their traditional lands, granting the most fertile areas to European settlers for large-scale farming. Forced labor systems were imposed, Indigenous African peoples were confined to reservations, and their movement was restricted. The resistance to these encroachments grew increasingly organized, with movements like the Kenya Land and Freedom Army seeking to remove white settlers and overthrow the colonial government.

When the British declared a state of emergency in 1952, they granted themselves permission to employ otherwise illegal measures to regain control. The recently revealed Operation Legacy documents confirmed that those suspected of participating in the resistance faced horrifying abuses. Between 1952 and 1959, over 80,000 people were imprisoned without trial, more than 1,000 convicted individuals were sentenced to death as terrorists, and extreme surveillance and interrogation tactics were implemented. Tragically, numerous individuals suffered brutal fates, with some beaten to death, others subjected to sexual violence or castration, and many enduring years of wrist shackling. Children were not spared, and innocent lives were lost to the violence inflicted by the colonial forces.

As a response to the newly uncovered evidence, the British government issued a formal apology and reached an out-of-court financial settlement with the 5,228 Kenyan claimants involved in the case. These original five claimants made history by seeking justice and paved the way for a necessary rewriting of Kenya's hidden history. The exposure of Operation Legacy files challenges the prevailing myths surrounding British colonialism as a benevolent institution that bestowed freedom and democracy upon its subjects before graciously granting independence. Instead, the uncovered evidence confirms the lived experiences of many, revealing a dark chapter in history that had been concealed but now demands acknowledgement and remembrance.

Henrik Leandro