RICHARD EDEN: Let’s not have a miserable apology party in Kenya, Charles. We need cheerful, optimistic ambassadors for the Commonwealth. (And there were GOOD things about the Empire too…)
- Next week the king and queen will visit East Africa
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When King Charles lands on Tuesday for a short tour of Kenya, he is expected to acknowledge some of the more “painful” aspects of our shared history.
These undoubtedly include the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s and its often bloody suppression by British forces.
But there is also much to celebrate about our strong ties with Kenya and the Commonwealth, says Richard Eden, who today urged the King and his advisers not to turn the visit into a ‘misery tour’.
Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip on a bridge in the grounds of Sagana Lodge at the Treetops Hotel during a Commonwealth visit to Kenya in 1952. The next day, Prince Philip would break the news to Elizabeth that her father, King George VI, was dead .
Thirty-two years later, Elizabeth and Prince Philip are shown around Treetops, the hotel where she learned she was queen
King Charles and Queen Camilla view items from the royal collection that commemorate the ties between the royal family and Kenya
“It should be a celebration of Britain’s close ties with Kenya and an opportunity to demonstrate how membership of the Commonwealth has benefited both countries since independence 60 years ago,” he writes in the latest edition from the Palace Confidential newsletter.
‘Our royal family should be optimistic, joyful ambassadors for Britain, not miserable defenders of the empire, which had both positive and negative aspects.
The midweek tour of Kenya, which runs from Tuesday to Friday, will include some moving notes, writes Eden.
‘The East African country is where his mother climbed a tree as a princess and descended as a queen.
‘And this week at a reception at Buckingham Palace he was shown a photo of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at the Treetops Hotel in Aberdare National Park, where they were staying in 1952 when they heard that George VI had died and that their lives would be up for grabs. would always change. .’
Together with Queen Camilla, this will be the king’s first trip to a Commonwealth country since the death of his mother and his accession to the throne just over a year ago.
Prince Charles and Princess Anne on safari in the Masai Game Reserve in 1971
Prince Charles pictured during a visit to Lake Rudolf, Kenya, in 1971
According to his deputy private secretary, Chris Fitzgerald, the king will take the opportunity to acknowledge “the more painful aspects of Britain and Kenya’s shared history.”
Will he move on? There are real dangers to this, Eden concludes.
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