§ 5. Mr. Fenner Brockwayasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will consider, with a view to their reduction, the sentences of three months' imprisonment, with hard labour and fines of £150 each, or, in default, a further six months' imprisonment with hard labour, and of one month's imprisonment and fines of £50 each, or, in default, three months' hard labour, passed on 10 and 16 Africans, respectively, at Nakuru, Kenya, on 28th January for refusing to be photographed, for the purposes of registration, as employed Kikuyus outside the Kikuyu reserve.
§ Mr. LytteltonThe prerogative of mercy is expressly delegated to the Governor of Kenya and I do not consider that it would be proper for me to attempt to intervene in these cases.
§ Mr. Fenner BrockwayWould the right hon. Gentleman bear in mind that a fine of £150 upon an African squatter is equal to his wages for 12 years and 358 that the equivalent for a miner in this country would be a fine of £4,500? In view of those facts, will the right hon. Gentleman intervene to stop these disgracefully high fines?
§ Mr. LytteltonMuch wider considerations are involved. I can only repeat that the prerogative of mercy rests with the Governor of Kenya and that grave issues would be involved if I were to attempt to intervene in a case of this kind.
Mr. DugdaleWould the right hon. Gentleman state what are the other considerations involved, and does he realise that opinion, both in Africa and elsewhere, will be shocked at the savagery of those sentences for comparatively trivial offences?
§ Mr. LytteltonThe right hon. Gentleman, who has held office in the Colonial Office, ought to know what are the serious considerations. If the Secretary of State attempted to exercise or to influence the prerogative of mercy, which is expressly delegated to the Governor, the whole course of colonial justice would be impeded.