BRITAIN’S KING CHARLES III has said 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. And for that, there can be no excuse,” Charles said at a state banquet hosted by Kenyan President William Ruto.
Although the four-day state visit by Charles and Queen Camilla has been billed as an opportunity to look to the future and build on the cordial modern-day ties between London and Nairobi, the trip has been clouded by calls for an apology.
The visit, which began today, 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.
Buckingham Palace said this month that Charles would take time to “deepen his understanding of the wrongs suffered” by Kenyans during colonial rule.
Charles said today that 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.
On Sunday, the Kenya Human Rights Commission had urged him to make an “unequivocal public apology… for the brutal and inhuman treatment inflicted on Kenyan citizens,” and pay reparations for colonial-era atrocities.
After a years-long court case, Britain agreed in 2013 to compensate more than 5,000 Kenyans who had suffered abuse during the Mau Mau rebellion, in a deal worth nearly £20 million.
In a statement in 2013, then-UK foreign secretary William Hague said: “The British Government recognises that Kenyans were subject to torture and other forms of ill treatment at the hands of the colonial administration.
“The British government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place, and that they marred Kenya’s progress towards independence. Torture and ill treatment are abhorrent violations of human dignity which we unreservedly condemn,” he said.
The so-called “Emergency” period was one of the bloodiest insurgencies of the British empire and at least 10,000 people – mainly from the Kikuyu tribe – were killed.
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