By Frank Kamuntu
King Charles III and Queen Camilla began a state visit to Kenya on Tuesday, facing widespread calls for an apology over Britain’s bloody colonial past.
Although the four-day trip has been billed as an opportunity to look to the future and build on the cordial modern-day ties between London and Nairobi, the legacy of decades of British colonial rule looms large.
It is the 74-year-old British head of state’s first visit to an African and Commonwealth nation since ascending the throne in September last year on the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
The royal couple, who arrived late Monday, were welcomed at a formal ceremony on Tuesday by Kenyan President William Ruto, who has hailed the visit as a “significant opportunity to enhance collaboration” in various fields.
The British High Commission said the tour, which follows trips to Germany and France earlier this year, will “spotlight the strong and dynamic partnership between the UK and Kenya”.
But it will also “acknowledge the more painful aspects” of Britain’s historic relationship with Kenya as the East African country prepares to celebrate 60 years of independence in December.
This includes the 1952-60 “Emergency” when colonial authorities brutally suppressed the Mau Mau guerrilla uprising, one of the bloodiest insurgencies against British rule.
At least 10,000 people — mainly from the Kikuyu tribe — were killed, although some historians and rights groups claim the true figure is higher.
Tens of thousands more were rounded up and detained without trial in camps where reports of executions, torture and vicious beatings were common.
The royal visit also comes as pressure mounts in some Caribbean Commonwealth countries to remove the British monarch as head of state, and as republican voices in the UK grow louder.
‘Unequivocal Apology’
Kenya nevertheless has special resonance for the royal family.
It is the country where Elizabeth learned in 1952 of the death of her father, King George VI, marking the start of her historic 70-year reign.
And it comes almost exactly four decades since Elizabeth’s own state visit in November 1983.
During two days in the capital Nairobi, Charles and Camilla will meet entrepreneurs and young Kenyans, and attend a state banquet hosted by Ruto.
Charles will also lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Uhuru Gardens, where Kenya declared independence in December 1963.
The royal couple will then travel to the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa, with a stop at a nature reserve and a meeting with religious leaders on the agenda.
Although the programme largely focuses on the environment, creative arts, technology and young people, Buckingham Palace said Charles will take time to “deepen his understanding of the wrongs suffered” by Kenyans during colonial rule.
On Sunday, the Kenya Human Rights Commission urged him to make an “unequivocal public apology… for the brutal and inhuman treatment inflicted on Kenyan citizens”, and pay reparations for colonial-era abuses.
Britain agreed in 2013 to compensate more than 5,000 Kenyans who had suffered abuse during the Mau Mau revolt, in a deal worth nearly 20 million pounds ($25 million at today’s rates).
Then foreign secretary William Hague said Britain “sincerely regrets” the abuses but stopped short of a full apology.
