Old photo of former Kenyan president meeting King Charles III shared out of context

This article is more than one year old.
Published on November 8, 2023 at 14:29
2 min read
By James OKONG'O, AFP Kenya

Last week, the United Kingdom’s King Charles III was in Kenya for a four-day state visit. As soon as he arrived in the country, an image emerged online claiming to show former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta meeting the king at Buckingham Palace while on holiday in the UK. However, the post is misleading; while the photo is genuine, it was taken in 2021 when Kenyatta went to the UK on an official trip. He was serving as Kenya’s president at the time, and Charles had not yet been crowned king.

“During his family vacation in the UK, Uhuru Kenyatta had the opportunity to visit Buckingham Palace, where he met with King's at the prestigious residence (sic),” reads the post published on X (formerly Twitter) on November 1, 2023.

Screenshot showing the misleading post, taken on November 6, 2023

The image, which shows Charles and Kenyatta standing in the grand entrance of a building, was also shared on Facebook and in another X post claiming that Kenyatta helped plan the “itinerary of the King’s VISIT (sic)” to Kenya.

In July this year, local media reported that Kenyatta was planning to travel with his family to the UK.

Charles in Kenya

On November 1, 2023, Charles and Queen Camilla began their visit to Kenya, a former British colony where there have been calls for a formal apology from the United Kingdom for colonial-era abuses (archived here).

During Kenya’s fight for independence, between 1952 and 1960, thousands of people were killed during the Mau Mau revolt against colonial rule, one of the bloodiest repressions in British imperial history (archived here).

During his visit, Charles was received by President William Ruto and paid a symbolic visit to the Uhuru Gardens – Uhuru is Swahili for freedom – in the capital Nairobi. It is at this park where Kenya, on December 12, 1963, marked its first independence celebrations.

The king and queen also visited Kenya’s port city of Mombasa, the original capital of British East Africa.

At a state banquet, the 74-year-old monarch said the “wrongdoings of the past are a cause of the greatest sorrow and deepest regret,” but stopped short of an apology.

“There were abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans as they waged…a painful struggle for independence and sovereignty. And for that, there can be no excuse,” he said.

This was the first state visit to a Commonwealth country by Charles as king.

However, the photo shared online does not show Kenyatta and Charles meeting recently.

Official visit

A reverse image search found that the photo has been online since 2021, long before Charles ascended to the British throne. At the time, Kenyatta was still president.

The photo was published on the State House Kenya official Facebook page on July 28, 2021 (archived here) when Kenyatta was on an official visit to the United Kingdom.

“President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday met His Royal Highness Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales at Sandringham House,” reads the post’s caption.

Kenya’s embassy in the UK also shared the photo on its official X account on July 29, 2021 (archived here).

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail