Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters
Influential Kenyan citizens and expatriates have told The Daily Beast they want King Charles to use his forthcoming visit to the country to make a full and frank apology for crimes perpetrated by British overlords as they crushed the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya between 1952 and 1960, one of the bloodiest episodes in colonial history.
One man, a Kenyan-born British lawyer and councilor, whose elderly grandfather was killed by British troops in 1956 while he was harvesting honey, described it as “very offensive” for Charles to contemplate traveling to the country without offering an apology and opening a discussion on reparations.
So far, the Palace has refused to be drawn in detail on the question of how the king will deal with the divisive and toxic legacy of British colonialism in Kenya, with advisers only saying that he would acknowledge “painful aspects” of the countries’ “shared history.”