Charles almost takes a tumble on artificial grass during cemetery visit in Kenya
King Charles nearly fell over after he tripped on a roll of fake grass during his visit to Kenya.
The monarch was visiting the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Kariokor cemetery in Nairobi with Queen Camilla when he took a tumble this morning.
He was being guided from one artificial grass walkway to another when his foot became caught beneath one of the mats.
Camilla reaches out to grab hold of the falling Charles, but he is able to balance himself quickly before putting on his sunglasses and walking it off.
The royal couple took part in an act of remembrance alongside British and Kenyan troops shortly after he nearly fell.
Charles told the people of Kenya he felt ‘greatest sorrow and deepest regret’ at Britain’s ‘abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence’ during the Colonial era.
He added there was ‘no excuse’ for Britain’s ‘wrongdoings’ in the East African nation, particularly against the Mau Mau rebellion.
He said: ‘It is the intimacy of our shared history that has brought our people together.
‘However, we must also acknowledge the most painful times of our long and complex relationship.
‘The wrongdoings of the past are a cause of the greatest sorrow and the deepest regret.
‘There were abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans as they waged, as you said at the United Nations, a painful struggle for independence and sovereignty – and for that, there can be no excuse.’
Kenya’s uprising, commonly known as the Mau Mau rebellion, was an armed movement that began in the early 1950s, fuelled by the resentment some members of the Kikuyu tribe felt towards their British rulers, European settlers who farmed land in Kenya and a lack of political representation.
White farmers were targeted in violent attacks and Kikuyu said to have collaborated with the authorities during the unrest known as the Emergency.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission has claimed 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed during the British administration’s counter-insurgency.
Kenya’s President William Ruto praised the King’s ‘exemplary courage’ in shedding light on ‘uncomfortable truths’ but described the colonial reaction to African struggles as ‘monstrous in its cruelty’ and said ‘much remains to be done in order to achieve full reparations’.
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