king Charles III and Camilla arrive in Kenya

On Monday evening, Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrived in Kenya for a four-day State visit, invited by President William Ruto.

Upon their arrival, they were welcomed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi by the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Foreign and Diaspora Affairs CS, Musalia Mudavadi, the British High Commissioner to Kenya, Neil Wigan, and other dignitaries.

Charles and Camilla’s visit is the first official one to an African nation as well as a Commonwealth member state since their coronation in May, and it comes as Kenya prepares to celebrate 60 years of independence from Britain.

Mr Wigan expressed in a press release the value Britain places on the strong UK-Kenya partnership that brings mutual benefits to both nations and the wider region.

During their stay in the country, Charles and Camilla will meet with President Ruto and First Lady Rachel Ruto at the State House on Tuesday, where Camilla will be taken through the First Lady’s activities, including women’s economic empowerment programs.

Additionally, the royals will visit Nairobi, Mombasa and surrounding areas, and attend an event to celebrate the life and work of Nobel Laureate the late Professor Wangari Maathai, together with Wangari’s daughter, Wanjira Mathai.

Charles will also host a reception for Kenya’s young people and future leaders, visit Mtongwe Naval Base in Mombasa and meet faith leaders from Mombasa.

Furthermore, he will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Uhuru Gardens, as well as visit the site of the declaration of Kenya’s independence in 1963.

Buckingham Palace said the visit’s purpose is to celebrate the warm relationship between the two countries, acknowledge the more painful aspects of the UK and Kenya’s shared history, and also to boost mutual prosperity, tackle climate change, promote youth opportunity and employment, advance sustainable development and create a more stable and secure region.

There have been calls for the British monarch to apologise during his visit for atrocities that saw about 10,000 people killed during Britain’s brutal suppression of the Mau Mau uprising.

However, the press release by the British High Commission in Nairobi said Charles will meet veterans and give his blessing to efforts by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

“to ensure Kenyans and Africans who supported British efforts in the World Wars are properly commemorated.”