Kenyan tribes call on Prince William to secure tea plantation reparations

Prince William meets President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta and his wife Margaret Wanjiru Gakuo. Photo / Getty Images

Kenyan tribes have written to the Duke of Cambridge calling for his help in securing reparations and an apology from Britain after their ancestral lands were turned into tea plantations in the colonial era.

Members of the Kipsigis and Talai tribes have petitioned the duke to "do the right thing" and intervene in the ongoing dispute, reminding him that the country is a "special place for you and your family".

They reminded Prince William that he proposed to Kate Middleton in Kenya and it was where the Queen learned she had acceded to the throne. They argued they were suffering ongoing hardship owing to "losing such precious land to profit-hungry corporations". Claiming their "colonial past" was also the duke's, they said: "Where we inherited the pain, you inherited the profit."

Prince William enjoys a joke with Edward Ndiritu, Head of Security at Kenyas Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Photo / Getty Images

Legal representatives of the surviving tribes are currently in London to meet MPs and posed with their letter to the duke outside Clarence House, home of the Prince of Wales. The duke has not yet responded directly to the petition. It is understood that the letter has been forwarded to the Foreign Office, as it concerns a matter of foreign policy.

It is the latest in a series of attempts by some Commonwealth countries to enlist the support of the royal family in their appeals for reparations for slavery. This time, the Kenyan tribes claim the British government has "refused to acknowledge" the "immense suffering" and declined to meet them "let alone apologise". The petition comes a year after six UN special rapporteurs wrote to the Government expressing concern for the UK's failure to provide reparations to the Kipsigis and Talai people of Kericho County in Kenya.

A UN report found that the British Government forcefully removed them from their land in the 1920s and created lucrative tea plantations for private companies supplying the West. Pleading for the Duke's help, the letter, sent by representatives of 100,000 Kenyans, said: "The pain of our colonial past has been inherited in many forms and is exacerbated by the ongoing economic hardships of losing such precious land to profit-hungry corporations. We are asking that you, therefore, do the right thing and support our quest for justice."

A spokesman for the tribes said they were "forcefully moved to an extremely arid part of Kenya" and, even after independence in 1964, had to live as "squatters alongside the tea plantations".

Prince William tightening screws to fit a new tracking device to Matt, a bull elephant roaming across northern Kenya. Photo / Getty Images

A spokesman for the FCDO said: "In 2013, the UK Government recognised that Kenyans were subject to ill-treatment at the hands of the colonial administration.

"We regret that these historic abuses took place and that they marred Kenya's progress towards independence. Promoting and protecting human rights around the world remains a cornerstone of our foreign policy."