Family of '12 Years A Slave' Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o suffered real torture and brutality in Kenya, father reveals

The father of Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o has revealed how the 12 Years A Slave actress's family suffered real brutality and torture in Kenya. Miss Nyong'o won both awards and critical praise for her performance as Patsey in director Steve McQueen's harrowing film in which her character appeared in some of the most shocking scenes, but her own family were also the victims of harassment, violence and even murder. As an opponent of former Kenyan PresidentDaniel arap Moi, the actress's father Peter Anyang Nyong'o was tortured repeatedly, while her uncle Charles Nyong'o's body was never found after he was attacked on board a ferry and hurled off the ship. Peter Nyong'o, now a leading Kenyan politician who serves on the country's Senate, has now revealed the true extent of family's brutal treatment, which led to them having to flee to Mexico where Lupita was born in March 1983. Mr Nyong'o said he had struggled to watch his daughter's acting triumph, but added that his own experiences pale in comparison to Solomon Northup, played in the historical drama by British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. 'We were put into prison and the torture chambers by the regime, but it was like a dinner party when you compare it to what the slaves went through,' he toldthe Independent On Sunday. Mr Nyong'o said that his brother Charles had vanished in 1980, two years after Mr Moi came to power, and at a time which Mr Nyong'o described as being 'difficult' politically. His body was never recovered and no one has ever been brought to justice for the killing. 'Even now, no information has come to light. I know he was on a ferry in Mombasa and witnesses who I managed to talk to told me clearly that it was not an accident and he had been attacked and pushed off the ferry. But the witnesses were too terrified to testify to the police,' he said. Mr Nyong'o said he had spoken to members of the Kenyan Special Branch and although he was told by one that they knew what happened the force were unwilling to help him. Academic Mr Nyong'o, who is Secretary-General of Kenya's Orange Democratic Movement and has been the Kenyan Minister for Medical Services since 2008, said he believes his brother was attacked because of his own opposition to Moi's rule. Investigators believe Moi and his allies plundered more than £3 billion from Kenya's coffers during his 24-year rule, and he was known to have used the country's security services to kill and torture critics of his regime. Mr Nyong'o and wife Dorothy were forced to leave Kenya for Mexico, where he found work at El Colegio de México as a visiting lecturer in political science, and where his daughter was born. On the family's return to Kenya in 1987 they had to go into hiding at a number of safe houses because Mr Nyong'o, who was trying to set up an underground democratic party, became the victim of harassment and arrest. As a young girl Lupita and her five brothers and sisters had to move with their parents from place to place, with her father often taken into police custody on a weekly basis, while the rest of the family were the victims of threatening phone calls.