Britain to compensate Kenyans for colonial-era torture LONDON (Reuters) - Britain expressed regret on Thursday about the abuse of Kenyans by colonial forces during the Mau Mau insurgency in the 1950s and announced a compensation package for more than 5,200 survivors worth a total of 20 million pounds ($31 million). "The British government recognizes that Kenyans were subject to torture and other forms of ill treatment at the hands of the colonial administration," Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament in London. The British government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place and that they marred Kenya's progress towards independence. The government reached a deal with the lawyers acting for the victims. The package, worth 19.9 million pounds in total, included a settlement sum in respect of 5,228 claimants. Sources in Kenya had earlier told Reuters the individual victims would receive about 2,600 pounds each, or about 340,000 Kenyan shillings in a country where average annual income is about 70,000 shillings. "This is a great day for us Mau Mau people" said Gitu Wa Kahengeri, secretary general of the Mau Mau War Veterans Association, speaking to Reuters in Nairobi. We have been waiting a long time to hear the British say 'what we did in Kenya was wrong'. The so-called Kenyan Emergency of 1952-1961 was one of the most traumatic episodes of British colonial rule in Africa. Tens of thousands of rebels were killed by colonial forces and their Kenyan allies, while an estimated 150,000 people, many of them unconnected to Mau Mau, were detained in camps. The three Kenyans who took the British government to court were all survivors of the detention camps. Nzili was castrated while in detention, Nyingi suffered severe beatings during nine years when he was held without charge, and Mara suffered sexual abuse including rape using a soda bottle full of boiling water. This is a story of a massive cover up and 50 years later justice being done. I don't know if there will be another case like this," Elkins told Reuters in Nairobi. "It is of course right that those who feel they have a case are free to bring it to the courts," Hague said. However...we do not believe that this settlement establishes a precedent in relation to any other former colonial administration. One case that has already been going through the courts concerns the 1948 killing of 24 unarmed Malayan civilians in the rubber plantation village of Batang Kali in what was then the British protectorate of Selangor. A court ruled last year that Britain was responsible for the deaths, contradicting the official government position. The report fueled speculation that Obama might have a cool relationship to Britain because of this, although a later biography of the president cast doubt on the account. Additional reporting by Drazen Jorgic and Richard Lough in Nairobi; Editing by Angus MacSwan