King Charles - The African Mirror

Feb

2024

King Charles’ cancer ‘caught early’, as Harry flies in to see him

KING Charles' cancer was caught early and the whole country is hoping he can make a full recovery, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, as messages of support for the 75-year-old monarch poured in from world leaders. Buckingham Palace revealed on Monday that Charles, on the throne for less than 18 months since the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth, was suffering from a "form of cancer" and would postpone his public engagements to undergo treatment. The king was remaining "wholly positive" and looking forward to returning to public work as soon as possible, the palace said. Charles' younger son…

Feb

2024

By MICHAEL HOLDEN and MUVIJA M

King Charles diagnosed with cancer, will postpone duties and undergo treatment

WORLD

BRITAIN'S King Charles has been diagnosed with a form of cancer and the 75-year-old will postpone his public duties while he undergoes treatment, Buckingham Palace said. Charles, who became king in September 2022 following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth, is "wholly positive" about his treatment and looks forward to returning to full public duty as soon as possible, the palace said. Charles spent three nights in the hospital last month where he underwent a corrective procedure for a benign enlarged prostate. The palace said a separate issue of concern had been spotted during the hospital visit but did not give…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

Humiliation and violence in Kenya’s colonial days – when old men were called ‘boy’ and Africans were publicly beaten

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

WHEN King Charles visited Kenya in November 2023, many Kenyans renewed their demands for an official apology for atrocities committed by the British government during the colonial era. The widespread human rights abuses during the Mau Mau rebellion are the best-known of these atrocities. Yet we should not forget more mundane, everyday acts of domination. BRETT SHADLE, Professor, Virginia Tech I am a social historian who has studied race, violence, colonialism and white settlement in Kenya. From the start of colonialism in 1895 to the drawing down of the Union Jack on December 12 1963, black Kenyans were constantly subjected…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

Kenya at 60: the shameful truth about British colonial abuse and how it was covered up

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, EDITORS CHOICE

IT is fairly well known that the lives of hundreds of thousands of Kenyans were affected by terrible acts of violence under the British colonial administration. The British government and King Charles have acknowledged it, and some victims of violence have taken the British government to court for these crimes. AOIFE DUFFY, Senior Lecturer, University of Essex Less known is how much the British imperialist government tried to cover up these violations. My research reveals how harsh British detention camps in Kenya were, and the extremes to which the colonialists went to conceal information about this. Much of this violence…

Nov

2023

By The African Mirror

King Charles wraps up Kenya visit marked by questions over colonial past

NEWS

KING Charles and Queen Camilla toured East Africa's oldest mosque and an ancient fort as they concluded a four-day state visit to Kenya marked by questions about Britain's colonial legacy. Charles met Muslim, Christian, Hindu and African traditional faith leaders in the coastal city of Mombasa and toured Fort Jesus, built by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Heavy rain prevented the royal couple from riding an electric tuk-tuk between venues. The visit, Charles' first to a former British colony since ascending to the throne in September last year, focused on the two countries' close cooperation on economic development, climate…

Nov

2023

By DUNCAN MIRIRI and AARON ROSS

King Charles’ regrets for colonial abuses in Kenya not enough for some victims

NEWS

BRITAIN'S King Charles and Queen Camilla began the second day of a state visit to Kenya as survivors of colonial-era abuses criticised his failure to issue a full apology or propose reparations. At a state dinner on Tuesday Charles expressed his "deepest regret" for what he called abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans during the country's independence struggle. President William Ruto commended the monarch's first step toward going beyond the "tentative and equivocal half-measures of past years", but said much remained to be done. During the 1952-1960 Mau Mau revolt in central Kenya, some 90,000 Kenyans were killed or…

Nov

2023

By The African Mirror

King Charles in Kenya: despite past tensions, the visit is a sign of a strong relationship with Britain

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

KING Charles’ visit to Kenya this week is the British monarch’s first to a Commonwealth nation since his coronation in September 2022. The visit comes during the country’s 60th anniversary of independence from Britain. POPPY CULLEN, Lecturer in International History, Loughborough University By choosing Kenya, the British government and monarchy seek to highlight the importance they attribute to the East African nation. It also shows other Commonwealth members that a republic can have a positive relationship with Britain. Some Commonwealth states like Jamaica are contemplating removing the king as head of state. King Charles’ visit is meant to celebrate the…

Nov

2023

By DUNCAN MIRIRI

King Charles expresses “deepest regret” for Kenya’s colonial wrongdoings

NEWS

KING Charles said he felt the "greatest sorrow and deepest regret" for the atrocities suffered by Kenyans during their struggle for independence from British colonial rule. But in a speech at the start of a four-day state visit to Kenya, he stopped short of making a full apology called for by survivors of that period and local rights groups who are pressing for reparations from the British government. "The wrongdoings of the past are a cause of the greatest sorrow and the deepest regret," Charles said during a state banquet. "There were abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against…

Oct

2023

By DUNCAN MIRIRI

Kenya blocks airing of allegations of UK army abuses before king’s visit

NEWS

KENYAN police blocked a news conference intended to air allegations of human rights and environmental abuses by British troops in the country, hours before King Charles arrives for a four-day state visit. Buckingham Palace has said Charles' visit will acknowledge "painful aspects of the UK and Kenya's shared history". The British ruled for more than six decades before the East African nation won its independence in 1963. The allegations in question relate to a period long after the end of colonial rule. Residents of central Kenya's Lolldaiga area have accused a British army training unit based nearby of causing a 2021 wildfire…

Oct

2023

By AARON ROSS

Dispossessed Kenyans demand compensation ahead of King Charles’ visit

NEWS

WHEN the then-Princess Elizabeth visited Kenya in 1952, Kibore Cheruiyot Ngasura was among a group of young men chosen to sing for her at an event near Lake Victoria. The men planned to use the occasion to petition Elizabeth to relocate their parents from a detention camp in the barren, mosquito-infested town of Gwassi, where members of the Talai clan had been held for nearly two decades on suspicion of fomenting resistance to British colonial rule. The event never happened. Before Elizabeth could make it to Lake Victoria, word came that her father, King George VI, had died. The new…