LONDON, July 21 (UPI) -- The British government has opened the door for potential legal action over alleged atrocities committed in Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising, officials said.

Britain's High Court ruled four elderly Kenyans could take legal action over alleged abuses by British colonial authorities in the 1950s and '60s, the BBC reported Thursday.


One justice said the four have an "arguable case" against the government, but a full trial would determine the validity of their claims.

The decision follows the release in May of Foreign Office documents showing the alleged abuse was "sort of a guilty secret." Among the claims in the documents are reports British officers implicated in the alleged atrocities murdered Mau Mau rebels to quell the uprisings.

The documents also provide details of what ministers in London knew about efforts to stop the rebellion that led to Kenya's independence, the BBC reported.

The test case claimants are Ndiku Mutwiwa Mutua, Paulo Muoka Nzili, Wambugu Wa Nyingi and Jane Muthoni Mara, now in their 70s and 80s. The four said they were abused and tortured in special camps the British government allegedly set up to quell the uprising.

Mutua and Nzili were allegedly castrated and Nyingi was beaten unconscious in an incident in which 11 men were allegedly clubbed to death, the report said.