Despite Colonial Past, Kenyans Swept Up in Royal Wedding
(Read article summary)Kenyans fought hard to get their freedom from the British empire. But when the Royal Wedding played on TV today, an estimated one in four Kenyans were following the wedding, on TV or radio.
Nairobi, Kenya
You might think that a former colony, with a complicated if not downright fractious history with the United Kingdom, would thumb its nose at the royal wedding. After all, isn’t the marriage of the future king and queen of England, full of extravagant pomp and circumstance, a throwback to the good old British Empire days? What Kenya broke free from 47 years ago?
But … you’d be wrong. Kenyans have caught royal wedding fever as much as the rest of the world – if not more. In a country with a population of roughly 40 million people, it’s estimated as many as seven to 10 million may tune in to see Catherine Middleton, the commoner, marry William, her Prince Charming.
“It really is the ultimate fairytale wedding,” says Sharleen Samat, the production manager for Nation Television, one of Kenya’s privately-owned national networks. Nation, or NTV as it’s commonly known, plans to devote much of the day’s programming to the nuptials.
