In the United Kingdom, the death of Queen Elizabeth II last month sparked a round of public discussions around the legacy of empire. In Kenya, these legacies have been particularly complicated. The last decade of colonial rule in the East African nation was dominated by the Mau Mau uprising. In October 1952, the colonial governor announced a state of emergency which led to thousands of deaths, tens of thousands of detentions, and torture and abuses sanctioned by Britain.

In 2013, Mau Mau veterans, who had sued the British government, received a settlement of £19.9 million. The British foreign and commonwealth secretary at the time, William Hague, announced that “The British government recognises that Kenyans were subject to torture and other forms of ill treatment at the hands of the colonial administration. The British government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place, and that they marred Kenya’s progress towards independence.” Nevertheless, the government continued to “deny liability” for these crimes.

The court case also led to the revelation that colonial officials had taken with them thousands of files and transferred them to the UK. These documents were not released into the National Archives but remained concealed at Hanslope Park, an obscure government-owned building near Milton Keynes, a small city more famous for its roundabouts than for hiding state secrets. The largest single collection of files came from Kenya. While prominent historians such as David Anderson and Caroline Elkins had already exposed Britain’s role in suppressing the Mau Mau uprising, the “migrated archives” provided written evidence of the extent of the UK government’s knowledge of the crimes committed in its name.