Let Ruto emulate King and apologise
Britain's King Charles III (left) with Kenyan President William Ruto during the ceremonial welcome at the State House in Nairobi on October 31, 2023.
The reception that has been accorded King Charles III and Queen Camilla in Kenya is remarkable. The host of the King and his wife, his counterpart President William Ruto, has done Kenyans and the Kenyan nation proud. He has proved to the world how hospitable and kind Kenyans are.
The acceptance by the King that the colonialists committed injustices, crimes and cruelty to Kenyans during the colonial days serves as a good lesson not only to Kenyans but the entire world.
It has created new harmony and love between Kenya and Britain. It serves as a lesson about how two nations with a dark and cruel history between them can come together and reason as friends.
The King has also proved that only after accepting a mistake can an apology emerge and, hence, a correction.
It has taken Britain 60 years to acknowledge the atrocities and crimes committed by the colonialists during the colonial era. And it has always been argued in Kenya that the past should not be revisited as it would create new wounds, citing the Kenyan cultural slogan of “Tusahau yaliyopita tuendelee mbele (Let us forget the past and forge ahead)”.
But King Charles has taught Kenyans a new lesson altogether: That remembering and revisiting the past would be the only ideal means of healing the old wounds, through accepting and apologising over the past mistakes, crimes and atrocities for a better future of friendship and love for one another.
Therefore, if King Charles acceptance of the colonial mistakes, crimes and atrocities has served as a good lesson to Dr Ruto and Kenyans, the President should not feel ashamed to apologise to the aggrieved individuals and communities in Kenya for the atrocities committed to them by successive Kenyan governments.
President Ruto has an obligation to accept and to apologise to the innocent Kenyan victims just as King Charles has done on behalf of the Britons who colonised Kenya.
- Dr Kinity, PhD, is a counsellor and human rights activist based in Connecticut, USA. [email protected]
