Kimathi v Foreign Commonwealth Office Queen’s Bench Division, [2017] EWHC 3379 (QB)

On 20 December Stewart J handed down a significant judgment on Parliamentary privilege in the on-going Kenyan Emergency Group Litigation: claims arising out of the “Mau Mau” insurgency between 1952 to 1960. The judge accepted the Defendant’s contentions that the test claimants could not rely on Hansard to prove that facts mentioned by a Member of Parliament in Parliamentary proceedings were true, or that the MP believed them to be true. That would amount to impeaching or questioning what happened in Parliament, in breach of the Bill of Rights 1689 art.9 and Parliamentary privilege. Further, Parliamentary privilege could not be waived and did not cease when the maker of a statement died.

Simon Murray of 1 Chancery Lane acts, with others, for the FCO in this on-going litigation.