NAIROBI: King Charles III and Queen Camilla began a state visit to Kenya on Tuesday (Oct 31), facing mounting calls to make 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.
Under rainy skies, the royal couple were given a ceremonial red-carpet welcome 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 that 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 to 1960 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 that 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 United Kingdom grow louder.
“TIME TO MOVE FORWARD”
“The negative impacts of colonisation are still being felt to date, they are being passed from generation to generation, and it’s only fair the king apologises to begin the healing process,” delivery rider Simson Mwangi, 22, told AFP.
But 33-year-old chef Maureen Nkatha disagreed.
“He doesn’t have to apologise, it’s time for us to move on and forward. We are now an independent country and he is not coming to save us,” she said.
“It is embarrassing to always ask the British to pay us for the wrongs yet we want to be treated as independent.”
Kenya and Britain are key economic partners with two-way trade at around £1.2 billion over the year to the end of March 2023.
But another lingering source of tension is the presence of British troops in Kenya, with soldiers accused of rape and murder, and civilians maimed by munitions.
In August, the Kenyan parliament launched an inquiry into the activities of the British army, which has a base near Nanyuki, a town about 200km north of Nairobi.
Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper has billed Kenya as the first stop on Charles’ “mission to save the Commonwealth”.
More than a dozen nations out of the Commonwealth grouping of 56 countries still recognise the UK monarch as head of state.
But clamour to become a republic is growing among some, including Jamaica and Belize, with Barbados making the switch in 2021.