Will King Charles apologise to Kenya over colonial atrocities? UK High Commissioner reveals

The United Kingdom’s King Charles III has faced incessant calls to apologise for colonial-era atrocities committed in Kenya when he visits the country next week.

The UK High Commissioner Neil Wigan, speaking on Citizen TV’s JKLive show on Wednesday night, remained coy on whether the King will actually offer a personal apology for the brutality meted on Kenyans during the period.

He however acknowledged that King Charles will openly address Britain's brutal suppression of the Mau Mau uprising, and possibly visit some of the places where they were committed.

Mr. Wigan went on to state that the UK has, over time, attempted to compensate the Mau Mau freedom fighters who were affected by the colonial rule.

“We’ve been very clear about our regret about what happened in the Mau Mau period, and the abuses that Kenyans suffered, and we’ve paid a significant amount of money to Mau Mau veterans who suffered, and paid for a memorial to celebrate that struggle,” he stated.

“The King will talk about this period openly, he’ll visit these places and we hope he’ll be able to meet some of the communities and individuals who were affected by British rule so he can understand it a bit better.”

However, on being asked directly by show host Jeff Koinange whether the King will offer a direct apology, the UK High Commissioner only stated that the country’s Foreign minister has already “expressed regret” over the bloody insurgency.

“We’ve expressed regret and we think that’s the right language, that’s the language that we talked to with the Mau Mau veterans, and we said that in our own Parliament, so that’s a really big statement for our Foreign minister to stand up in Parliament and express that regret; it was a really powerful thing,” he said.

About 10,000 people were killed during Britain's brutal suppression of the Mau Mau uprising, one of the British empire's bloodiest insurgencies.

Britain agreed in 2013 to compensate more than 5,000 Kenyans who had suffered abuse during the revolt, in a deal worth nearly 20 million pounds (over Ksh.3.6 billion at today's exchange rates).

"We are hoping that he will bring a national apology," Evelyn Wanjugu Kimathi, the daughter of top resistance leader Dedan Kimathi, recently told AFP, saying she hoped the visit would lead to "closure".

"Once we have the goodwill from the UK government, everything else will be okay," said Kimathi, who heads a foundation that looks after the interests of veterans of the independence war as well as campaigning on environmental issues.

She also voiced hope that Britain would help Kenya identify graves of the "freedom fighters" including her father, who was hanged in 1957 at Nairobi's Kamiti Maximum Security Prison but whose remains have yet to be located.