King Charles’ Contentious Visit to Kenya
When asked about a proliferous colonizer, the first country that comes to mind is the United Kingdom. They have a rather extensive history of inserting themselves into countries where they do not belong and wreaking havoc amongst all of the native citizens. The United Kingdom has even acknowledged from time to time their regretfulness over certain historic events, such as when Queen Elizabeth visited the Amritsar massacre site in India and paid her respects. Unfortunately, this is about as far as the U.K. is willing to go in regards to regretfulness, they often will not offer sincere apologies to those that they colonized, nor will they pay reparations for the citizens that suffered under their abusive hand. This legacy of deliberately evading their responsibility to reckon with their past continues with an upcoming visit from the current King to Kenya.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla plan to visit Kenya starting on October 31 until November 3. King Charles plans to “...acknowledge the more painful aspects of the U.K. and Kenya’s shared history”. While this may sound promising, acknowledging what took place in Kenya is likely all that he plans to do… Many Kenyans wish for an official apology from the king, and many more would like reparations, and the return of stolen land that descendants of previous English settlers still own today. The United Kingdom’s lack of willingness to provide proper reparations to Kenya, among other previously colonized countries, may leave people wondering what their intentions are when returning to Kenya. The claimed reasoning is to continue relations with Kenya involving the U.K.’s agreement to train troops in Kenya, further economic relations between both countries and lastly encourage counter-terrorism efforts within Kenya. While these all may certainly be true, I believe that there is also hope that the crown holds to build its reputation globally. In recent years, support for the U.K. monarchy has been at an all-time low as many individuals are coming to learn of the atrocities that the crown has committed worldwide. Hopefully, King Charles’ visit to Kenya will prove beneficial more so for Kenya, and their grievances will be not only acknowledged but attended to, however knowing the U.K.'s track record, I do not hold high hopes.