The niece of a Kenyan lady allegedly murdered by a number of British troopers has referred to as on the King to behave on her case as he visits the African nation.
Agnes Wanjiru went lacking in her hometown of Nanyuki in 2012 and two months later her physique was present in a septic tank of a resort.
She had stab wounds to her stomach and a 2019 inquest concluded she was murdered by a number of British troopers.
Earlier than the King and Queen arrived in Kenya for the beginning of their five-day state go to to Kenya on Monday, Ms Wanjiru’s 19-year-old niece Esther Njoki wrote the King a letter calling on him to assist result in justice and closure.
Ms Njoki, who lives in a casual settlement in Nanyuki, near the British Military Coaching Unit (BATUK) base within the Nyati barracks, additionally referred to as on the King to go to her household – herself, her mom (who’s Ms Wanjiru’s sister Rose), her cousin Stacy, and Ms Wanjiru’s surviving daughter – who was simply 5 months {old} when her mom was killed.
She wrote in a letter to the monarch: “Your Majesty, we ask that you simply come to our assist by bringing consideration and urgency to the case of Agnes Wanjiru’s homicide.
“Please let not Agnes’s daughter Stacey develop up in a world the place evidently justice is elusive not just for the poor but in addition for those who appear like her.”
Removed from a symbolic gesture, Ms Njoki’s letter is a major transfer that calls for actions from the commander-in-chief of the British crown forces.
The British authorities maintains that the jurisdiction for the investigation lies with the Kenya Police Service. The inquest discovered that there have been indicators of a possible cover-up and restricted investigations within the speedy aftermath.
However 11 years on, the boys accused of her homicide are nonetheless strolling free.
Whereas Buckingham Palace has mentioned that the royal go to will acknowledge “painful elements of the UK and Kenya’s shared historical past”, the King and Queen don’t have any scheduled plans to go to Nanyuki throughout their journey.
Fairly than the £70mn BATUK facility in Nanyuki’s Nyati barracks, they are going to be proven a show of British-Kenyan defence collaboration in seaside workouts on the Mtongwe Naval base in Mombasa.
Different occasions in Kenya have additionally enflamed discontent concerning the nation’s post-colonial relationship with Britain.
A 2021 hearth on a British military coaching website in Lolldaiga, Laikipia moved 5,000 complainants to say it impacted their well being, livestock and setting.
The British Excessive Fee in Kenya advised Sky Information that “no property exterior of the Lolldaiga Hills Ranch was broken by the hearth and no massive animals have been killed.”
That has not quelled protests and calls for for compensation.
“There’s a feeling that colonialism continues to be alive and properly, and due to this fact the overall feeling is that there must be a change,” says Kenyan political scientist, Professor Peter Kagwanga.
He provides: “Allow us to be clear that compensations have been accomplished in various {cases} however there has not been unequivocal apologies or denunciation of what has occurred.
“Subsequently Kenyans really feel that they’re second-rate residents, the so-called kids of a lesser God in comparison with their British counterparts – and in consequence, that’s including to the cumulative grievances towards BATUK in Nanyuki.”
Within the hours earlier than the King and Queen’s arrival, the expression of those grievances is being stifled.
Kenyan authorities are shutting down protests in Nairobi and have blocked a information convention meant to air allegations of human rights and environmental abuses by British troops within the nation.
Even because the grieving Esther hyperlinks justice with the King’s go to, Kenyan authorities are practising public suppression simply to make sure it occurs with out opposition.