From October 31 to November 3, Charles III and Queen Camilla will travel to Kenya for the sovereign’s first state visit to a Commonwealth country. This meeting is expected at the turning point, after the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 2022 triggered waves of protests, demanding an apology from the United Kingdom for its colonial past.
The agenda is clear. While the Daily Mail has just announced the next state visit of Charles III and Queen Camilla to Kenya – the first to one of the Commonwealth countries – which will take place from October 31 to November 3, the program of these a few days are starting to take shape. From the outset, the British sovereign will apologize to the Kenyan population for the occupation of its territory and the plundering of its resources by the United Kingdom during the British Empire.
According to Chris Fitzgerald, Charles III’s personal secretary, the sovereign should address the “most painful aspects of the shared history of the United Kingdom and Kenya”, including the reprimands put in place by the British Empire to deal with to the waves of demonstrations and strikes, which gripped the territory in the 1950s. A speech loaded with meaning, as the country approaches the sixtieth anniversary of its independence.
Charles III catches up on shooting after Kate and William’s visit
Last year, Kate Middleton and Prince William visited Kenya during their Caribbean tour. However, the arrival of the Prince and Princess of Wales had triggered waves of protests, given the United Kingdom’s colonial past. Although Kenya has been independent for almost sixty years, and therefore does not recognize the British monarch as its head of state, it nevertheless remains a member of the Commonwealth. But the painful memory of the occupation remains engraved in our minds. And it will be up to Charles III to ease these tensions, by making the United Kingdom “mea culpa”. A first in British history.
This article is originally published on gala.fr
