King Charles III has acknowledged the "painful aspects" of Britain and Kenya’s history, expressing regret for the violence committed against Kenyans during their fight for independence from Britain but stopped short of an apology.
Charles used a speech, delivered during a banquet in Kenya held in his honour, to speak of the "greatest sorrow" and "deepest regret" for the "wrongdoings" of the past, a period when Britain's colonial administration violently put down Kenya's battle for self-rule.
"There were abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans as they waged, as you said at the United Nations, a painful struggle for independence and sovereignty. And for that, there can be no excuse," the king said.
"In coming back to Kenya, it matters greatly to me that I should deepen my own understanding of these wrongs and that I meet some of those whose lives and communities were so grievously affected."
Kenya's President William Ruto praised the King's "exemplary courage" in shedding light on "uncomfortable truths" but described the colonial reaction to African struggles as "monstrous in its cruelty" and said "much remains to be done in order to achieve full reparations".
Kenya's uprising, commonly known as the Mau Mau rebellion, was an armed movement that began in the early 1950s, fuelled by the resentment some members of the Kikuyu tribe felt towards their British rulers, European settlers who farmed land in Kenya and a lack of political representation.
White farmers were targeted in violent attacks and Kikuyu said to have collaborated with the authorities during the unrest known as the Emergency.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission has claimed 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed during the British administration's counter-insurgency.
Speaking after Ruto, Charles told the 350 banquet guests gathered at the president's official residence in the capital Nairobi: "It is the intimacy of our shared history that has brought our people together.
"However, we must also acknowledge the most painful times of our long and complex relationship.
"The wrongdoings of the past are a cause of the greatest sorrow and the deepest regret."
