The King handed the five medals to former corporal Samweli Mburia during a poignant ceremony.
The King has presented medals to a Kenyan believed to be one of the world’s oldest surviving Second World War veterans after he lost his military honours.
Many Kenyans who served with the British threw away their medals during the Mau Mau uprising against colonial rule in the 1950s, for fear of being accused of being British collaborators. The presentation ceremony was held at a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Nairobi where Charles and Camilla attended a short act of remembrance with the King laying a wreath.
The veteran’s daughter Idah Kagweni, 54, said her father’s medals were lost and described the mood among Kenya’s ex-military as the struggle to end British rule became violent. Kenya’s uprising against colonial rule, 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.
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