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NAIROBI – In his first public comments as monarch on colonial atrocities, King Charles III said. On his first visit as king to a Commonwealth country, there was “no excuse” for the “abhorrent and unjustified acts of violence against Kenyans” during their struggle. He called for independence from Britain but did not offer the full apology that many people in Kenya had requested.
Speaking at a state banquet on Tuesday, Charles stuck closely to the British government’s line and said he felt “greatest sadness and deepest regret” over past wrongdoings. He omitted any language that might open a broader discussion about reparations.
Kenya, celebrating the 60th anniversary of its independence, was a relatively safe choice for Charles’ first Commonwealth trip. It has a warmer relationship with the United Kingdom than some other former colonies.
King Charles III visited Kenya on October 31 and said there were “no excuses” for Britain’s past colonial violence, but stopped short of offering a full apology. (Video: The Washington Post)
Still, Britain, like other former colonial powers, is in a period of reckoning, and the king is under pressure to deal with the legacy of decades of British rule in East Africa.
British-Kenyan relations at “official level are very good,” said Nicholas Westcott, professor of diplomacy at SOAS University of London and former director of the Royal African Society, but “that doesn’t mean there aren’t some difficult issues that “go back to the colonial period.”
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The front page of a weekly magazine in the Daily Nation, Kenya’s most popular newspaper, featured a picture of Charles with the headline “The Dark Past.”
There were demands that Charles particularly acknowledge the violent repression by the British authorities in Kenya during the early reign of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. In the 1950s, British officials responded to the so-called Mau Mau uprising – a movement to reclaim land and independence – with a brutal crackdown on the general population. Thousands were killed and significant numbers of people were imprisoned and tortured, including Hussein Onyango Obama, President Barack Obama’s grandfather. His family said he was beaten by his British captors, who “squeezed his testicles with metal rods.”
In 2013, Britain expressed “sincere regret” over human rights abuses during this period. A British court also awarded more than 5,000 Kenyans a payout of around $24 million.
As a constitutional monarch, Charles takes his cue from the British government and is not expected to go beyond what the government has said. At the same time, as the new king, he seems to want to convey that he is personally sensitive to the issue.
“Writing royal speeches requires a deft hand and a keen ear,” Westcott said.
During the state banquet on Tuesday evening, Charles told the assembled guests: “We must also acknowledge the most painful times in our long and complex relationship. The transgressions of the past are the cause of the greatest sorrow and the deepest regret.”
He added: “It is very important to me that I deepen my own understanding of these abuses.”
But some Kenyans said this trip would be the perfect moment for Charles to move beyond expressions of regret.
“We need a national apology for the atrocities committed against African blacks in Kenya,” said Evelyn Kimathi, the daughter of a famous field marshal who fought against British colonial authorities in the 1950s. Her father, Dedan Kimathi, was hanged by the British in 1957, the family says, but they don’t know what happened to his body and have been trying to find his grave.
Another point of contention: Kenya’s Pokomo people have reiterated their calls for the return of a drum, the Ngadji, the source of power and pride for their own ethnic group. It has been in the British Museum for more than a century.
Makorani-a-Mungase VII, the current Pokomo king, said he would enjoy a king-to-king audience, which is not in the official schedule. He considered “collapsing a gate to one of the events,” he said, but then concluded that “the King of Pokomo cannot cry out to seek out the King of the Britons.” We’ve done it before and so can we don’t do it. The last time we did this, they took away our Ngaji.”
During his four-day visit, Charles will spend time in the capital Nairobi and the coastal city of Mombasa. The British royals will visit a new museum dedicated to Kenya’s history. As with previous state visits, Charles will take time to attend events that highlight his interest in the environment, including a meeting with activist Wanjira Mathai and a visit to an urban farm.
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But it will be his comments on past atrocities that will be most closely watched.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander apologized this year for his country and family’s role in the slave trade. On a recent trip to South Africa, he visited the slave cabin in Cape Town where Dutch colonists once enslaved thousands of Africans and Asians.
Charles, on the other hand, has not apologized for the monarchy’s role in slavery or the uglier parts of Britain’s colonial past. When he was still a prince, he only went so far as to express “my personal sadness at the suffering of so many people” and to signal support for research into the monarchy’s historical ties to slavery. When he hosted a state banquet for the South African president last year, Charles vaguely acknowledged that “there are elements of that [our] History that causes deep suffering.”
When The Washington Post published evidence that the British crown was branded on the bodies of enslaved people trafficked in America, the palace said in a statement: “This is a matter that His Majesty takes deeply seriously.”
Charles hopes his trip goes better than Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales’ Caribbean trip last year. This trip was widely viewed as a PR disaster, marred by protests along the way. Critics criticized photos of Kate shaking hands with children through a wire fence and images of the white-clad couple in an open Land Rover, which some said were reminiscent of Britain’s colonial past.
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Some Kenyans interviewed by The Post this week said it was time to move on.
“What’s the point of always reminding people of the past?” said George Mburu, 31, a motorcycle taxi operator in Nairobi. “The British give money, they support projects, they are sad about what they have done, why can’t we just work together for a better future?” He added that he was hoping to catch a glimpse of the royals, perhaps as their motorcade drove through the streets of Nairobi.
Mary Mwangi, 29, a trader in Nairobi, said he viewed the royal visit like that of any other head of state. “These people come to Kenya every day but it makes no difference in our lives,” she said. “Many of us are not interested in the past and are more interested in how we can make money and feed our children.”
Adam reported from London