King Charles has cited his “greatest sorrow and deepest regret” to the people of Kenya for abuses during the colonial period on behalf of the crown, but stopped short of apologizing for the atrocities committed by British forces during the six-decade colonization.
Charles and Queen Camilla are currently on tour in the African country, marking their first visit to a Commonwealth country since Charles’ accession.
The tour is meant to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Kenya’s independence, and many – including human rights’ activists – have been calling for an apology from the King while there on behalf of the Royal Family.
Kenya and Britain have had a close but at times challenging relationship after the prolonged struggle against colonial rule, sometimes known as the Mau Mau Rebellion, in which thousands of Kenyans died.
However, the apology has still not arrived, despite Charles touching on the subject at a state banquet hosted by Kenyan President William Ruto on Tuesday.
At Tuesday’s dinner, Charles said there “can be no excuse” for the “wrongdoings of the past.” He said addressing them with honesty and openness could “continue to build an ever-closer bond in the years ahead.”
The failure to issue a formal apology is being criticized by many Kenyans.
About half a million Kenyans were violently evicted from their ancestral lands under Britain’s colonial rule, UN experts estimate. Large swaths of land in the Kipsigis and Talai communities were handed over to British settlers, who developed the areas into tea plantations.
According to the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), the colonial administration masterminded the extrajudicial torture and killings of 90,000 Kenyans during that period.
The KHRC sent a 10-page document on Monday to the U.K. High Commission in Nairobi, urging Charles to apologize.
“We are raising a number of concerns with respect to the unresolved injustices by the colonial government when they were in the country between 1895 and 1963,” said Davis Malombe, the rights group’s executive director, “and also the other atrocities, which have been committed by the British multinational corporations and other actors from that time to date.”
Ruto took a diplomatic approach to the King’s visit, saying he welcomed the “courage and readiness to shed light on uncomfortable truths that reside in the darker regions of our shared experience.”
Ruto told the banquet that Britain’s response to Kenya’s quest for self-rule was “monstrous in its cruelty.”
Colonial authorities resorted to executions and detention without trial as they tried to put down the insurrection, and thousands of Kenyans said they were beaten and sexually assaulted by agents of the administration.
“Much remains to be done in order to achieve full reparations,” he said.
Others, however, were more direct in their criticism of Charles’ “careful choice of words.”
“This was a ‘miss’,” Ernest Cornel of the KHRC said, according to The Guardian.
Politician and human rights activist Koigi Wamwere told The Associated Press the King ought to apologize and offer full reparations for the two countries to move forward, saying that “Britain must undo as much as they can.”
Joel Kimutai Kimetto, 74, said his grandfather and father were kicked out of their ancestral home by the British.
“What is most painful is that years after the brutalities and the stealing of our land, British companies are still in possession of our ancestral homes, earning millions from their comfortable headquarters in the U.K., while our people remain squatters,” he told The Associated Press. “We ask President William Ruto and our leaders to use this golden opportunity to address our plight with the king.”
As Charles and Camilla tour the country, several protests and demonstrations have been cancelled or shut down by Kenyan authorities.
A planned protest and press conference by victims of a fire at a conservancy in central Kenya that was allegedly started by British soldiers in training was cancelled ahead of the visit, after police issued a cancellation notice.
Another group of protesters briefly chanted anti-British songs and threw roses at the foot of a monument to Mau Mau veteran Dedan Kimathi in Nairobi’s central business district on Tuesday. Uniformed and plainclothes police officers dispersed the group.
“Just because the King is in Kenya, police have denied us our constitutional right to protest peacefully,” Juliet Wanjira, one of the organizers, said.
Previous backlash
The disappointment and backlash at Charles and Camilla is not something new and was likely expected after Prince William and Kate Middleton’s contentious Caribbean tour in 2022.
While on tour, William and Kate participated in a number of events that drew worldwide backlash, like greeting throngs of children through a chain link fence in Jamaica, as well as recreating Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s colonial-era photo-op where they stood in the back of a Land Rover while being driven along a parade route.
While on tour, William attempted to apologize for his family’s role in the perpetuation of slavery and colonialism.
At a dinner hosted by the governor general of Jamaica, Prince William said slavery “should have never happened” and “stains our history.”
— With files from The Associated Press
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