British monarch King Charles III received a warm red carpet welcome Tuesday morning (Oct. 31) from Kenyan President William Ruto, accompanied by a 21-gun salute. But many Kenyans demanded a reckoning during Charles’ four-day state visit to the former East African colony.

The Associated Press reports that Charles will acknowledge the “painful aspects” of Briain’s rule of Kenya, including the torture of Kenyans during the Mau Mau uprising, a period known as the Kenyan Emergency of 1952-1960.

“His Majesty will take time ... to deepen his understanding of the wrongs suffered in this period by the people of Kenya," Buckingham Palace said, according to Reuters.

However, many Kenyans want more than an acknowledgment from Charles.

“We call for unequivocal apologies from King Charles when he visits Kenya,” the Kenya Human Rights Commission said at a press conference on Sunday (Oct. 29), The Kenya Times reports.

“During the period of colonization, Africans were subjected to unimaginable levels of inhumane treatment, some killed, and others repressed for speaking out against the colonialists,” the group continued.

KHRC said it wants the U.K. government to address its economic exploitation of Kenya and to take responsibility for crimes British soldiers committed during the colonial period.

Economic marginalization, including the taking good land from Kenyans without proper compensation, was one of the main grievances that prompted Mau Mau fighters to raid the homes and farms of white settlers, according to the BBC.

In response, the British declared a state of emergency and launched a decadelong counter-insurgency that ended in 1960.

Just 32 whites were killed. The Kenya Human Rights Commission estimated that 90,000 Kenyans were executed, tortured or maimed, though the official number of Mau Mau rebels killed is 11,000.

In 2013, the United Kingdom agreed to pay the equivalent of $24 million to more than 5,000 Kenyans who survived torture and abuse during Britain’s crackdown on the Mau Mau.

"We understand the pain and the grief felt by those who were involved in the events of emergency in Kenya. The British government recognizes that Kenyans were subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment at the hands of the colonial administration," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in 2013, according to The Guardian.

"The British government sincerely regrets that these abuses took place and that they marred Kenya's progress to independence. Torture and ill-treatment are abhorrent violations of human dignity which we unreservedly condemn."

However, Hague underscored that the U.K. government was not liable for the actions of the colonial administration and would reject similar claims from other former British colonies.

During the visit, Charles and Queen Camilla went to the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, where he and Ruto laid wreaths before traveling to the site where Kenya declared its independence in 1963.

Behind the pleasantries, Kenyans had harsh words for Charles.

“The king should never have been allowed to step in this country, considering the dark history of British colonialists,” Salim David Nganga said, adding that Charles should have apologized first, according to The AP.

Others shared how British rule harmed their families.

“What is most painful is that years after the brutalities and the stealing of our land, British companies are still in possession of our ancestral homes, earning millions from their comfortable headquarters in the U.K., while our people remain squatters,” Joel Kimutai Kimetto, 74, told The AP.

He said the British took his family’s ancestral home from his grandfather and father.

“We ask President William Ruto and our leaders to use this golden opportunity to address our plight with the king,” Kimetto added.

Meanwhile, the U.K. government also faces a reckoning with its former Caribbean colonies, which announced in September that they would send letters demanding an apology and reparations for slavery to the British royal family and other British institutions involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Charles previously expressed “personal sorrow” for the suffering caused by the slave trade and vowed to “deepen my own understanding of slavery’s enduring impact.”

However, he has not formally apologized. Britain’s global shipping industry transported an estimated 3.2 million enslaved Africans to its colonies. Evidence suggests that the monarchy and the current royal family directly benefited from the slave trade.