During his four-day tour to Kenya, King Charles III is making his first state visit to a Commonwealth nation as king, demonstrating his support for an organisation that has been essential to Britain’s standing and influence worldwide since World War II.
This is also a highly symbolic tour, since it was in 1952, while visiting a game preserve in the East African nation, that Charles’s mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, discovered she had become the monarch of the United Kingdom.
Late on Monday, the king and Queen Camilla landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. British High Commissioner to Kenya Neil Wigan, together with Foreign Minister and Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi of Kenya, received the royal couple.
State House will host a formal welcome by Kenyan President William Ruto on Tuesday morning.
Charles will discuss the “painful aspects” of his country’s shared history with Kenya, which is commemorating its 60th anniversary of independence from the United Kingdom this year, during the visit. Since their independence, the two nations have maintained a close relationship despite the protracted fight against colonial control, popularly referred to as the Mau Mau Rebellion, which claimed thousands of Kenyan lives.
In an attempt to put an end to the rebellion, colonial officials used executions and confinement without charge or trial; thousands of Kenyans also claimed that administration officers had beaten and sexually molested them.
In order to guarantee that Kenyans and Africans who aided British efforts in the World Wars be duly remembered, the Commonwealth War Graves Commision has announced that Charles will “meet veterans and give his blessing to efforts by the commision.”
On Tuesday morning, main routes leading to the central business district experienced somewhat delayed traffic. Johnson Sakaja, the governor in charge of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, had warned locals on Monday to anticipate “mild” traffic interruptions during the king’s visit.
In order to further demonstrate his dedication to environmental preservation, Charles also intends to go to Nairobi National Park and meet with environmental activist Wanjira Mathai, the late Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai’s daughter.
The British royal family has a lengthy history in Africa. During a speech from South Africa on her 21st birthday in 1947, the future queen promised to serve Britain and the Commonwealth for the rest of her life. Elizabeth found out she had become queen five years after her father’s death while touring Kenya’s Aberdare National Park with her late husband, Prince Philip.
