The newly crowned monarch of the United Kingdom, King Charles III, is expected to visit Kenya later on in the year as part of efforts by the Crown to strengthen its ties with Commonwealth nations. With more countries calling for their governments to drop the British Monarch as their constitutional head, it is even more imperative for the Crown to appear as a partner to its former colonies.
This will be the fifth time the monarch is visiting Kenya and be his first official trip since his coronation, a tour which will later head to France after its Kenyan leg.
With Kenya having long-standing ties to the Crown (the late monarch and current king’s mother, Queen Elizabeth, had been on a visit to Kenya in 1952 representing her father when she became queen), the visit is expected to deepen the ties between the two modern states.
However, the visit is expected to elicit mixed emotions among locals. This is especially true given the emotional sendoff of Mukami Kimathi, wife of the late Field Marshall Dedan Kimathi, who was laid to rest last weekend. The sendoff had reignited calls for the UK government to make reparations for colonialism and for the welfare of the remaining freedom fighters and their descendants, many of whom have slipped into poverty.
The visit is also expected to address the disaffection Kenyans have with the British Army Training Unit in Kenya based in Nanyuki, which has come under accusations of abuses by the soldiers against the locals, with the revival of a 21-year old case of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan who British soldiers allegedly murdered. UK lawmakers want an amendment of Article 6(5) of the Kenya-UK-Northern Ireland Defence Cooperation Agreement allowing for soldiers training in Kenya under the agreement who commit murder to be tried locally in Kenya.
It will be interesting to see how the new king addresses these diplomatic issues in his first official visit to the African continent since being officially crowned.
