GREATEST SORROW AND THE DEEPEST REGRET

King on colonialism in Kenya

- RUSSEL MYERS

THE King yesterday told his Kenyan hosts of his "greatest sorrow and deepest regret" over wrongdoings during British rule.

He spoke out in a passionate speech at a state banquet in his honour on his first trip to a Commonwealth country as monarch.

His words came after the Kenyan President William Samoei Ruto labelled him a "veteran visionary" but urged reparations for years of "monstrous" control that scarred his country.

Charles pointedly acknowledged wrongs done before Kenya's independence in 1963.

He did however stop short of an apology for the appalling deaths of local people during the Mau Mau revolt in stat the 1950s, which some activists had called for.

The King 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.