Charles III must make a “clear public apology” for human rights violations committed during Kenya’s colonial period (1895-1963), the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) demanded on Sunday. Days of a state visit by the king to the East African country.
The ruler Charles III. and his wife Camilla are expected in Kenya from October 31 to November 3, his first state visit as a royal to a Commonwealth country.
The history between the two countries was particularly marked by the suppression of the Mau Mau uprising against the British colonial power, which claimed more than 10,000 lives between 1952 and 1960, mainly within the Kikuyu community, one of the bloodiest repressions of the British Empire.
After years of legal wrangling, London agreed in 2013 to compensate more than 5,000 Kenyans, but some are waiting for the king to issue a formal apology for Britain’s past actions.
“We call on the King, on behalf of the British government, to make an unconditional and unequivocal public apology (…) for the brutal and inhumane treatment inflicted on Kenyan citizens during the colonial period between 1895 and 1963,” he said to the KHRC, an independent human rights group.
The KHRC also called for reparations “for all atrocities committed against the various groups in the country” and mentioned land grabbing in addition to the suppression of the Mau Mau.
This visit offers the opportunity to discuss “the most painful aspects” of the history between the two countries, and Charles III. “will take the time (…) to deepen its understanding of the injustice suffered by the Kenyan people during this time.” Buckingham Palace assured before his visit.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission also called on Kenyan President William Ruto to “prioritize these demands in his meetings with the King.”
The royal couple will be welcomed by President Ruto in the capital Nairobi on Tuesday. Over two days, he must meet entrepreneurs and young people, attend a state banquet, visit a new museum dedicated to Kenya’s history and lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Uhuru Gardens in the center of the capital.
Charles and Camilla will then travel to the port city of Mombasa (south), where the environmentally conscious king will visit a nature reserve and meet representatives of various religions.
Kenya is particularly linked to the history of the royal family: it was there that Elizabeth II learned of the death of her father, King George VI, in 1952, making her the new ruler of the United Kingdom.