When the King and Queen fly to Kenya at the end of this month, it may seem like another state visit to the untrained eye.
A royal welcome heralds a packed four-day program of engagements.
There will be formal dinners and stops in both Mombasa and Nairobi, the capital.
But behind the smiles and handshakes, the tour will mark not only a pivotal point for the new government, but also the future direction for the monarchy as a whole.
Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh on a bridge in the grounds of Sagana Lodge, their wedding gift from the people of Kenya on February 5, 1952. The next day news would arrive that her father, King George VI, had died. Elizabeth was queen
King George VI bids farewell to his daughter Princess Elizabeth as they fly to Kenya in February 1952. It was the last time she saw her father.
Prince Charles visits a tea factory in Nairobi in 1987. The Prince of Wales is there in his capacity as director of the Commonwealth Development Association
Prince Charles is pictured on safari in the Masai Game Reserve in 1971
The Royal Family’s relationship with the Commonwealth has never been more complicated.
While the “family of nations” remains a pillar of Queen Elizabeth II’s legacy, that family is rapidly changing.
Apart from the United Kingdom, only fourteen Commonwealth countries still recognize King Charles as their head of state.
It could reasonably have been assumed that any of these 14 realms would be at the top of the new Monarch’s list to visit.
But no.
Instead, Kenya has been chosen, an ally that this year celebrates 60 years of independence from British rule.
This is clever – and you only have to look at the Prince and Princess of Wales’s experiences in the realms of Belize and Jamaica during their 2022 Caribbean visit to understand why.
In Jamaica, Prime Minister Andrew Holness told the couple bluntly that his country was breaking away from the royal family.
In Belize they faced protests from landowners who said they had not agreed to Prince William landing on their plantation by helicopter.
But on this latest visit to Kenya – note that the palace no longer calls these trips “tours” but “visits” – the king may join the East African country in celebrating its independence.
By doing this, the king can point to a blueprint that empires like Jamaica and Australia could follow.
They have shown a desire to break away from the British Royal Family, but as Kenya shows, a friendly and prosperous relationship with both Britain and the Royal Family can continue even after independence.
Charles will also try to use soft diplomacy.
The king has told aides that he will discuss “the painful aspects” of Britain’s colonial past and that he wants to “deepen his understanding of past events.”
The British government has already apologized and paid compensation for the brutal way in which troops suppressed the Mau Mau uprising of 1952-1962. Britain has also paid for a permanent memorial to the victims of torture.
But an apology or a speech expressing the reigning monarch’s deep sorrow would be groundbreaking.
The palace, of course, insists that the destinations of royal visits are determined by the Foreign Office, and that is exactly as it should be.
Twenty-two-year-old Prince Charles sits on a Turkana stool during a visit to Kenya’s Great Rift Valley and Lake Rudolf – now Lake Turkana – in 1971
Charles with Anne in the Masai Game Reserve in 1971
Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh stand at attention upon their arrival at Eastleigh Airport in Nairobi, 1952
Princess Anne talks to President Jomo Kenyatta while Prince Charles looks around
Kate Mansey says that with the monarchy at a crossroads, Kenya is a smart choice for the king’s visit
Yet this is clearly a visit with personal significance for the King.
He won’t have time to visit Treetops, the hotel where his late mother went to stay in a treehouse as a princess and came down as queen the next morning after being told that her father George VI had died.
No doubt that enormous moment will be reflected in some way during the visit
Today the monarchy is at a new turning point. And the king, who turns 75 next month, knows better than anyone that the way he tackles the past will be the key to securing a better future.