Three victims of torture during the 1950s Mau Mau uprising are seeking damages from the British government

Three victims of torture during Kenya's 1950s Mau Mau uprising have given evidence to the high court in their bid to win damages.

Last year, the elderly Kenyans won a ruling from Mr Justice McCombe that they had "arguable cases in law", but they are now facing the British government's claim that the actions were brought outside the legal time limit.

Their lawyers say it is an exceptional case in which the judge should exercise his discretion in their favour.

Wambugu Wa Nyingi, Paulo Muoka Nzili and Jane Muthoni Mara spoke through interpreters as they were questioned on Tuesday about statements they had provided.

Each was told in turn by Guy Mansfield QC for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) that the government did not dispute they suffered "torture and other ill-treatment at the hands of the colonial administration".

In his written evidence, Nyingi, 84, a father of 16 who still works as a casual labourer, said he was arrested on Christmas Eve 1952 and detained for about nine years.

During that time, he was beaten unconscious in an incident in 1959 at Hola camp in which 11 men were clubbed to death, and he still bears marks from leg manacles, whipping and caning. He said: "When I was released I would have nightmares about three times a week. I would dream about the murder of people at Hola. These nightmares continued for about four years.

"When people talk about the Mau Mau or the colonial era I think about the terrible events I lived through. When these thoughts are triggered I get so sad and stressed about what happened that I develop a headache and I cannot work.

"I feel I was robbed of my youth and that I did not get to do the things I should have done as a young man. There is a saying in Gikuyu that old age lives off the years of youth but I have nothing to live off because my youth was taken from me."

Nyingi said the anti-colonial Mau Mau were banned in Kenya until 2003 and he had no idea about the possibility of compensation until he was interviewed by the Kenya Human Rights Commission in 2006.

"I have brought this case because I want the world to know about the years I have lost and what was taken from a generation of Kenyans.

"If I could speak to the Queen I would say that Britain did many good things in Kenya but that they also did many bad things. The settlers took our land, they killed our people and they burnt down our houses," he added.

"In the years before independence people were beaten, their land was stolen, women were raped, men were castrated and their children were killed.

"I do not hold her personally responsible but I would like the wrongs which were done to me and other Kenyans to be recognised by the British government so that I can die in peace."

The trio want an apology and a Mau Mau welfare fund to ensure they and other victims can live with an element of dignity in their final days.

Nzili, 85, said in his statement that he was a herdsman when he was abducted into the forest by the Mau Mau in 1957, but he managed to leave them and get to Nairobi where he was arrested.

On the fourth day of his stay at nearby Embakasi camp, he was stripped, chained and castrated by having the veins of his testicles cut with large pliers used on cows.

"After I was castrated I thought I had been cut off from any sexual life and that I would never be able to marry and have children, which is a man's pride. I felt completely destroyed and without hope.

"I could not see what the future held for me. I was useless and felt genuinely that it was better for me to die. It took years for me to find any hope but I have never really recovered from what was done to me at Embakasi on that day."

"What has affected me most from this is that I have been made to feel like I am like a woman. I have never had children of my own and never will have. I am unable to have sexual relations with my wife."

He said that he lived on about £1 a week and would like some form of compensation so he could live with less hardship.

In her statement, Mara, 73, said she was 15 when she was taken to Gatithi detention camp, where she was beaten with sticks and a gun butt and had her legs stamped on.

On the second day, during questioning about her brother and the Mau Mau, she was held down while a glass bottle containing very hot water was pushed into her vagina.

She felt "completely and utterly violated" and was forced to watch the same sexual torture, using larger bottles, inflicted on three older women, who had borne children. These women died shortly after their release.

She added: "I want the British government to compensate me for the suffering I have been caused as a result of the abuse I was subjected to in the camps. The abuse has affected my whole life and I relive the events I lived through on a regular basis.

"I do not understand why I was treated with such brutality for simply having provided food to the Mau Mau. I killed no one, I harmed no one, all I wanted to do was to help those who were fighting for the dignity and freedom of our people."

Mansfield has said the FCO faced "irredeemable difficulties" in relation to the availability of witnesses and documents. It would have wished to call those in senior positions in the Colonial Office, War Office, British army and the Kenyan colonial administration – but the majority of those who might give material evidence are now dead.

"Without those witnesses, and indeed with the necessarily limited recollections of those who do survive, the very complicated and difficult task of determining the competing factual positions cannot be fairly conducted."

The hearing was adjourned until Wednesday.