The Kenya Human Rights Commission has demanded from King Charles “an unequivocal public apology” for the abuses committed during colonialism. Charles arrived in Nairobi on Monday, accompanied by Queen Camilla, in your first visit to a Commonwealth country since his coronation, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of Kenya’s independence.
The monarch was received on Tuesday with 21 gunshots, accompanied by the President William Ruto, and contributed to the planting of several trees in the gardens of the Presidential Palace. The royal couple then visited the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Uhuru Gardens, the site of declared the independence of the African country in 1963.
During the four-day visit, the monarch is expected to acknowledge “the painful aspects of the history shared between the United Kingdom and Kenya” According to a statement from Buckingham Palace, “Her Majesty will spend time delving into the errors suffered by the people of Kenya during that period.”
The “period” to which the statement refers is known as “the emergency”, between 1952 and 1962 (at the climax of the fight for independence), when it is estimated that British soldiers forced the confinement of one and a half million Kenyans in concentration camps, where they were subjected to torture, rape and abuse.
The treatment of thousands of Kenyans during the also known as “Mau Mau Rebellion” It was described in 1957 as “reminiscent of conditions in Nazi Germany or Communist Russia”, in a letter addressed to British authorities by the colony’s then attorney general, Eric Griffith-Jones.