When King Charles III visits Kenya next week, he\u2019ll do something no other member of his family has done in the country. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s because, in addition to the usual fare of state banquets and such, he\u2019s planning on acknowledging the \u201cmore painful aspects\u201d of shared history between the United Kingdom and Kenya, according to Buckingham Palace. <\/p>\n
The four-day visit starts Tuesday and comes as the country prepares to celebrate 60 years of independence from Britain. Charles will be joined by his wife, Queen Camilla. <\/p>\n
The Mau Mau uprising \u2013 a violent period in which thousands were killed \u2013 pushed Kenya toward independence in 1963. It is seen as one of the most brutal episodes of Britain\u2019s imperial past. <\/p>\n
The rebellion against British colonialists in Kenya in the 1950s originated from the Kikuyu tribe, the country\u2019s largest ethnic group. As the empire struggled to quell the insurgency in one of its most important colonies, it declared a \u201cstate of emergency\u201d and detained as many as 160,000 Kenyans. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s also estimated some 90,000 people in custody were tortured, maimed or killed, according to the Kenyan Human Rights Commission. The conditions were so bad that even Britain\u2019s colonial-era attorney-general likened the detention of thousands in the squalid camps to Nazi Germany. <\/p>\n
Next week\u2019s royal visit will largely focus on the strong connection between the two countries. <\/p>\n
Chris Fitzgerald, the King\u2019s deputy private secretary, said next week\u2019s trip would \u201ccelebrate the close links between the British and Kenyan people in areas such as the creative arts, technology, enterprise, education, and innovation.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe visit will also acknowledge the more painful aspects of the UK and Kenya\u2019s shared history, including the Emergency\u2026 His Majesty will take time during the visit to deepen his understanding of the wrongs suffered in this period by the people of Kenya.\u201d <\/p>\n
Days before the royal visit, elders of the Nandi community called for the UK to return the skull of a leader killed in 1905 by the British, Kenya\u2019s The Nation newspaper reported. The skull of Koitalel arap Samoei is believed to be in a UK museum. The elders are also demanding the return of other stolen cultural artefacts as well as compensation for the atrocities that took place against the Nandi community during colonial rule, the local media outlet reported. <\/p>\n
In 2013, following a years-long legal battle brought by a group of elderly Kenyans who said they were tortured during Britain\u2019s rule, then-Foreign Secretary William Hague announced a \u00a319.9 million (around $30 million) settlement between the British Government and more than 5,000 Kenyan claimants over human rights abuses, along with the construction of a memorial for victims of torture. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe British government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place and that they marred Kenya\u2019s progress towards independence. Torture and ill-treatment are abhorrent violations of human dignity which we unreservedly condemn,\u201d Hague said in a statement to the UK Parliament. <\/p>\n
While the settlement recognized the suffering and injustice of the period, it fell short of accepting responsibility. \u201cWe continue to deny liability on behalf of the Government and British taxpayers today for the actions of the colonial administration in respect of the claims,\u201d Hague added. <\/p>\n
Ten years on, Charles will be greeted with a formal reception at the State House in Nairobi. He will engage in bilateral discussions with President William Ruto and other Kenyan government officials and participate in meetings with faith leaders, young individuals and entrepreneurs during his visit. <\/p>\n
The trip also marks his first to a Commonwealth member nation during his reign. <\/p>\n
Charles succeeded his mother as head of the organization \u2013 an association of independent states that emerged out of the ashes of the British Empire. Since 1969, Charles has visited 48 of the 56 Commonwealth countries, most recently Rwanda last year for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). <\/p>\n
While there, Charles recognized that \u201cthe roots of our contemporary association run deep into the most painful period of our history\u201d and spoke of his \u201cpersonal sorrow at the suffering of so many, as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slavery\u2019s enduring impact.\u201d <\/p>\n
He followed up those words this year when he expressed his support for research into the royal family\u2019s historical involvement in the slave trade. <\/p>\n
Kenya holds a special place for the British royal family. In 1952, then-Princess Elizabeth was staying at Treetops Lodge in the Aberdares mountains when she found out her father had died, and she was to become Queen. Unfortunately, King Charles\u2019 jam-packed schedule during the trip will not permit him to visit the poignant location. <\/p>\n\n
When King Charles III visits Kenya next week, he\u2019ll do something no other member of his family has done in the country. That\u2019s because, in addition to the usual fare of state banquets and such, he\u2019s planning on acknowledging the \u201cmore painful aspects\u201d of shared history between the United Kingdom and Kenya, according to Buckingham <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}