Empty plinth in Nairobi where UK queen once stood

In a downtown Nairobi park, an empty plinth marks the spot where Britain's Queen Victoria was once memorialised. One local resident said colonial statues should be taken down "all over the world," due to the painful memories they evoke. When Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963, the nation emerged filled with statues of its former masters. A political consensus arose to take down these reminders of colonial rule. But successive governments left one statue standing.

It was a statue of Queen Victoria presented to the Kenyan capital in 1906 by Alibhai Mulla Jeevanjee, a wealthy Indian businessman. The statue stood in Jeevanjee Gardens in the heart of Nairobi for over 109 years, until one night in 2015 when it was torn down and beheaded by vandals. To date, the perpetrators haven't been identified. The statue now sits headless in the park's bushes, five years on. "This statue reminds me of the suffering our forefathers went through (at) the hands of colonialists and whenever we see them, the memories are fresh," said Samuel Obiero, a local resident. In recent weeks, statues with racist connections have been targeted by protesters around the world. This came after the death of George Floyd, a black American who died on May 25 after being restrained by a white police officer in Minneapolis.