Britain Ran Concentration Camps in Kenya. Then It Hid the Files for 50 Years. In the 1950s, Kenyans rose up against colonial rule. Britain's response was a vast network of detention camps and fortified villages. Historians estimate hundreds of thousands were detained. Survivors describe beatings, forced labour, and torture, all under the banner of "civilising" Africa. Then came the cover-up. As colonies gained independence, British officials destroyed some records and secretly shipped others to a government facility, where they stayed hidden for decades. The truth surfaced in 2011, after elderly Kenyan survivors took Britain to court. In 2013, London expressed regret and agreed to pay £19.9 million to over 5,000 victims. If the empire was so "civilised," why did it need to bury the evidence? And why does this barely appear in school textbooks? They said Mau Mau were savages, but based on the evidence, it seems it was the British that were the true savages according to the true definition of the word. 📚 References: Caroline Elkins, *Imperial Reckoning* (2005); David Anderson, *Histories of the Hanged* (2005); BBC News, "UK to compensate Kenya's Mau Mau torture victims" (June 2013).