King Charles Expresses “Deepest Regret” Over Colonial Wrongdoings In Kenya

Nairobi: King Charles III said Tuesday there could be “no excuse” for British colonial atrocities against Kenyans as he visited the country, but did not offer the apology demanded by some in the East African nation.

“There were abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans as they waged… a painful struggle for independence and sovereignty,” Charles said at a state banquet hosted by Kenyan President William Ruto.

Although the promotion of Charles and Queen Camilla’s four-day state visit emphasizes looking towards the future and strengthening the friendly modern-day relationship between London and Nairobi, Buckingham Palace had stated that the king would address historic “wrongs” during decades of colonial rule.

It is the 74-year-old British head of state’s first tour of an African and Commonwealth nation since becoming king last year and comes just weeks before Kenya celebrates the 60th anniversary of independence in December.

On Tuesday morning, Ruto gave Charles and Camilla a ceremonial red carpet welcome under rainy skies. They later laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in the Uhuru Gardens memorial park.

In Swahili, “Uhuru” means “freedom,” and the site is steeped in Kenya’s turbulent history. They declared independence there at midnight on December 12, 1963. They lowered the Union flag and replaced it with Kenya’s black, red, green, and white flag.

British colonial authorities built the gardens on the site of a camp where they detained suspected Mau Mau guerrillas during the suppression of their 1952-1960 uprising.

During the so-called “Emergency” period, one of the bloodiest insurgencies of the British Empire unfolded, resulting in the deaths of at least 10,000 people, primarily from the Kikuyu tribe.

Tens of thousands faced detainment without trial in camps, where reports of executions, torture, and brutal beatings were widespread.

– ‘Greatest sorrow’ –

Charles said the “wrongdoings of the past are a cause of the greatest sorrow and the deepest regret”.

He said he hoped to “meet some of those whose lives and communities were so grievously affected” by colonial abuses.

“None of this can change the past but by addressing our history with honesty and openness, we can perhaps demonstrate the strength of our friendship today, and in so doing, we can I hope continue to build an ever-closer bond for the years ahead,” he said.

Ruto said the colonial response to Kenyans’ push for self-rule “was monstrous in its cruelty”.

“It culminated in the Emergency, which intensified the worst excesses of colonial impunity and the indiscriminate victimisation of Africans,” he said at the state banquet.

He said Charles’s “courage and readiness to shed light on uncomfortable truths” was a first step to deliver “progress beyond tentative and equivocal half measures of past years”.

But it did not deliver the formal apology sought by some in Kenya.

On Sunday, the Kenya Human Rights Commission urged Charles 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.

But 33-year-old chef Maureen Nkatha disagreed.

“He doesn’t have to apologise, it’s time for us to move on and forward,” she said.

– Family ties –

Charles said Kenya had “long held such special meaning for my family” and spoke of his mother’s “particular affection” for the country and its people.

Kenya is where Queen Elizabeth II — then a princess — learned in 1952 of the death of her father, King George VI, marking the start of her historic 70-year reign.

Charles has conducted three official visits prior to this week’s tour, which is being organized to coincide with the 40th anniversary of his mother’s state visit in November 1983.

Kenya and Britain are close economic partners with two-way trade at around 1.2 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) over the year to the end of March 2023.

The royal programme focuses on efforts to tackle climate change, with Charles long a fervent campaigner for action to protect the environment, as well as support for creative arts, technology and youth.

Following their two-day stay in the capital, the royal couple will travel to the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa, stopping at a marine nature reserve and meeting religious leaders.