HOST KENYANS AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE IN RUN-UP TO STATE VISIT
They are spending this week in Kenya, on the first state visit of their reign to a Commonwealth country, and last week the King and Queen prepared for their trip with a special event at Buckingham Palace.
Their Majesties hosted guests from the Kenyan diaspora in the UK in the magnificent surroundings of the Picture Gallery, where the royal couple also admired a collection of items linking the two nations.
The King smiled as he was shown a photograph of his parents, the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, in the grounds of Sagana Lodge in 1952. He also spent time poring over an image of the Treetops Hotel – the famous wildlife lodge in which his mother was staying when she became Queen overnight.
Elizabeth and Philip were at Treetops, deep in Aberdare National Park, on 5 February that year, when the King died in the early hours of the following morning.
When they returned to Sagana Lodge – a wedding present from the people of Kenya – Philip was told about George VI’s death and broke the news to his wife.
Looking at the black and white image of Treetops, Camilla asked: “Is it no longer with us? Oh dear, it’s collapsed.” The King added: “It’s a great shame.” She replied: “Yes, it is. It’s really sad. One of the iconic places. It’s sad it’s gone.”
The King also spotted an image of himself shaking hands with President Jomo Kenyatta on his first visit to Kenya as Prince of Wales in 1971. “I remember it very well,” he said. Among other gifts given to Queen Elizabeth II over the years were a wooden giraffe and a stool inscribed with her name in Swahili – Kwa Malkia Elizabeth Wa Pili.
FOND MEMORIES
Also on display was a speech from her visit in 1972, when she thanked the Kenyan people for hosting her eldest son and daughter Princess Anne the previous year for a visit “of which they have spoken to me with vivid enthusiasm and pleasure”.
Guests at the reception included Kenyans from the worlds of business, media, charity, art, sport, government and the military, including Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha and former EastEnders star Nitin Ganatra. Gurinder said of the visit: “What I see in our King is somebody who doesn’t shy away from some of the politics of empire and is looking for ways where we can acknowledge the past but also
