British Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, has spoken about seeing a man beaten to death in front of her in Nigeria when she was a schoolgirl in what she called “jungle justice”.
Speaking on Saturday in an exclusive interview for ‘The Talk Show’ with Independent editor-in-chief, Geordie Greig, the Tory leader said the incident happened when a car she was travelling in with her mother in her family’s native Nigeria was attacked in a traffic jam.
She narrated how a thief who tried to steal a watch worn by a friend of her mother was grabbed by a mob and “literally beaten to death”.
Ms Badenoch said that during her childhood in Nigeria, such events were “common”, including “armed robbery, hearing next-door neighbours being attacked, endless burglaries, cars being stolen, lynch mobs”.
Badenoch, whose birth name is Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke, was born in Wimbledon, London, in 1980 to Nigerian parents but spent her childhood in Nigeria, returning to Britain when she was 16.
She is the leader of the UK Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition. She became Conservative leader in November 2024 after defeating Robert Jenrick in the party’s leadership contest. She previously served as the UK’s Business and Trade Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities under former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
While joking she regretted not being able to drink more alcohol owing to the discipline required to be Tory leader and the need to “look good”, she said she had never experienced racism in Britain.
Recalling seeing violence and dead bodies “multiple times” in Nigeria, she said: “There was one occasion when I was very young, about eight or nine, in a car, and traffic jam.
“Windows wound down in a car with a driver, my mother and my mother’s friend. The hand snatch goes into the car and snatches the jewellery that my mum’s friend is wearing. It was by a street market… someone immediately shouts, ‘Thief!’
“A mob arises from nowhere, and this person is literally… we can’t move because it’s a traffic jam. And this person is beaten to death, and it’s horrible. Windows are wound up, and it’s all chaos. It was scary, but not unusual.
“Jungle justice, that’s the phrase that my family refer to it as.”
Ms Badenoch explained: “The mob takes over. Someone shouts thief, and they point, and that’s basically it. It may be the thief, it may be the wrong person. And it went on. It’s absolutely terrifying.”
Ms Badenoch said her experience of violence in Africa had shaped her political approach to UK immigration.
“I understand that desire to just be in a place where if you didn’t lock your front door, you don’t have to worry because nothing’s going to happen.
“The reason millions of people from around the world want to move to Europe or the US is often because of security, not feeling safe.”
Defending her call for tougher immigration curbs, she said: “People are exploiting the kindness of the United Kingdom.”
She said she had not once been the victim of racism living in the UK. “Never. That is the honest truth. It’s one of the reasons I say that this is an amazing country. This is not a racist country.
“Of course there are racists. There have been people who have said and done things which I would’ve thought, yes, this is prejudice.
“But my definition of racism is people who would deliberately disadvantage you because of your race, not somebody making an off-colour joke.”
On healthy living, the Tories leader said, “I don’t drink as much as I would like to. This job makes you need a drink.”
