Ten Ugandans are suing the British government for crimes committed by colonial officers during a late 19th century war in the northwest of the country.
The suit largely centres on events that took place in the Bunyoro tribal kingdom between 1893 and 1899.
‘Before this war the population of Bunyoro was stated to be 2.5 million. But by the end of the war there were only 150,000 Bunyoro that could be accounted for,’ Crispus Ayena Odongo, a lawyer for the group, said.
‘The people who were responsible for invading the place should tell us where the rest are,’ he added.
When the British began their colonial project in present-day Uganda they were received warmly by one the country's largest tribes, the Buganda, according to several historical works.
However, the Bunyoro, the other dominant kingdom in the area, was resistant.
The suit alleges that between 1893 and 1899 the British, using their own fighters and those imported from Buganda, decimated Bunyoro in an attempt to force the tribal monarch to sign an agreement with the colonial government.
Mr Odongo, who previously served as the chief legal advisor to the Lord's Resistance Army rebel militia during failed peace talks, said his case relied heavily on diaries from colonial field officers.
He said the kingdom had never recovered from the massive losses caused by the British backed invasion.
The case is currently pending in a Ugandan court. Britain has hired local legal representatives who have insisted the British government enjoys diplomatic immunity.
Mr Odongo said his clients suspect they may have more success pursuing the matter in a British court, the approach chosen by a group of Kenyan former Mau Mau freedom fighters.
‘This and the Mau Mau case are very similar. It's a very good precedent,’ he argued.
The ten named citizens are senior officials from Bunyoro's Kibaale district.
Mr Odongo said the complainants were asking for £300bn (€344bn) in damages.
