This Maasai woman from the Lakipia Disctrict works for 'illegal European immigrants' in kenya who occupy her ancestral lands for which she is paid 70 shillings (52 pence) per day. Photo © Imani Media Ltd How many white Britons whom invaded African countries and stole the land of its indigenous peoples were invited or had visas or other documents issued by African heads of state permitting their legal residence?

On May 7, thousands of migrants, many from Africa and the Caribbean took to the streets of London as they called on the government to ‘regularise’ their status in the UK and allow them to remain here. Many of the 500,000 or so migrants who have overstayed their visitor’s visas, have pending asylum applications or have been trafficked here have been criminalised and declared aliens, outsiders, ‘illegal’ and unwanted invaders of Britain.

Yet, the fact remains that the British economy has benefited enormously from their cheap labour- labour that has come at immense personal cost to the migrants, who have been exploited, denied basic human rights and frequently treated with hostility and disrespect. Ever since Britain, the ‘Mother Country’ that turned out to be anything but nurturing - invited citizens from former colonies to come to Britain to carry out the jobs that its own citizens did not want to do - it has maintained an aggressive stance on immigration that is steeped in both hypocrisy and historical amnesia.

For whilst the government continues to create hysteria amongst its citizens about ‘tightening its borders,’ introducing restrictive practices making it virtually impossible for people from certain countries (those populated by people of African descent) to come and work in Britain – it is deafeningly silent on its own record of illegal immigration and illegal occupancy of other countries.

How many white Britons whom invaded African countries and stole the land of its indigenous peoples were invited or had visas or other documents issued by African heads of state permitting their legal residence? And more importantly, how many white British illegal immigrants continue to occupy ancestral lands belonging to indigenous African peoples and enjoy lives of luxury and comfort while the true African citizens live in poverty in their own country?

Having visited Kenya in March as part of a joint project with an African NGO to investigate the link between land, poverty and the legacy of British colonial rule ; I can testify that many British 'illegal' immigrants are living very well indeed, while dispossessed Maasai, for example are forced to work for ‘illegals’ for less than 50p a day. As the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples reported on a mission to Kenya in December 2006, during the British colonial invasion of Kenya, ‘illegal immigrants’ seized the richest agricultural areas, displacing indigenous Africans onto poor land, relegating them to the status of landless workers.

In the Lakipia district, the area we investigated, 75 per cent of the land remains in the hands of ‘illegal British immigrants’ and other ‘illegal European invaders.’ Yet, whilst the legacies of greed, inhumanity and injustice heap poverty and destitution among indigenous Africans in their own homeland, the British government continues to wax lyrical about unwanted illegal immigrants on its own doorstep.

The situation being experienced by indigenous Africans in Kenya is replicated across the length and breadth of Africa from Zimbabwe to South Africa and beyond. As stated, the British obsession with illegal immigration in the UK is steeped in hypocrisy and historical amnesia. I am cautiously in support of the Strangers into Citizens Campaign to regularise those who are currently being exploited, dehumanised and criminalised.

I say cautiously, because given Britain’s own past record of invading sovereign nations and its failure to make reparations to those who continue to suffer from its actions – I do not think that the migrants in question should be made to feel that Britain is doing them a favour, even if they are granted leave to remain – it is merely the chickens of Britain’s colonial past and present coming home to roost.

The report and documentary: Stolen Heritage: Land, Poverty & the Legacy of British Colonial Rule in Kenya by Imani Media Ltd and IMPACT in association with the Maasai Cultural Heritage Trust will be released in July 2007.