Press Release
Mau Mau Claims to be issued on 23 June 2009
On Tuesday the 23rd June 2009, Leigh Day & Co will issue a claim for compensation for torture against the British Government on behalf of 22 Kenyans. The claimants are now in their 70s and 80s and have travelled to London from rural Kenya in order to issue the claims in person. Above all the claimants are seeking an official apology for the torture they were subjected to.
The Kenyan claimants allege that they were assaulted, tortured and unlawfully imprisoned for a number of years during the brutal repression of the Kenyan independence movement by the British Colonial Government in the 1950s and early 1960s. These test cases are representative of the wider community of thousands of Kenyans who were detained and tortured during the fight for independence.
A press conference will be held at The Law Society at 11am on Tuesday 23 June 2009.
The claims will be formally issued at the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand at 2pm the same day. Photographers are invited to attend a photo call which will take place with our clients at the steps of the Royal Courts immediately prior to the issuing of the claims.
If you are able to confirm your attendance by contacting Nisha Patel on 020 7650 1272 or by email [email protected] it would be appreciated.
Press Conference:
Time: 11am
Date: Tuesday 23rd June 2009
Venue: The Law Society, 113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PL
3:00 – 5:00 PM
Uganda to be among top 50 oil producers
AN oil exploration firm in Uganda said on Friday the wells it is planning to drill this year could put the country among the world’s top 50 producers.
British Tullow Oil manager in Uganda Brian Glover suggested Kampala should concentrate on further exploration rather than begin large-scale production.
Since 2006 when Uganda first discovered oil, some 600 million barrels of reserves have been found around Lake Albert that straddles the Uganda-DR Congo border.
“The wells we are going to drill this year could discover another billion barrels. So Uganda could be a country with between a billion and a billion and a half of total reserves,” Glover told AFP.
“That would put Uganda into the top 50 oil producers in the world,” he added.
Commercial petroleum extraction is expected to start this year.
Canadian oil prospecting firm Heritage Oil said in September it had found the country’s largest oil deposit in the Albert Basin.
Experts say there may be up to two billion barrels of oil reserves, most of it under Lake Albert.
On February 17, Brian Smith, the vice-president of exploration at Heritage Oil, said Uganda expected to become an oil producer next year and could be a significant supplier in future.
British oil companies Heritage Oil and Tullow oil work in exploration projects in the Albert Basin.
Smith said there was a possible two billion barrels of oil in the Albert Basin but much of this would not be available until around 2015, although some production could be on stream by 2010. Analysts also think Uganda has potential.
“There has been 700 million barrels discovered in the basin, which is enough for a commercial development and there is definitely upside potential,” said Christopher Brown, Sub-Saharan Africa analyst at Wood Mackenzie.
Heritage Oil says there have been 18 successful exploration and appraisal wells drilled in the basin since 2006, of which three tested at a production rate at over 12,000 barrels per day (bpd).
Development of the basin assumes building a crude export line to Mombasa on the east coast of Kenya at about $1.5-2.0 billion, with a capacity of 500,000 bpd.
“There is potential for Tullow Oil to start very small scale production from next year but we wouldn’t expect an export pipeline before 2014 or maybe later,” Brown said.
Mau Mau victims in UK to petition for compensation