The Duke of Cambridge should help Kenyan tribes secure reparations and an apology from Britain after their ancestral lands were turned into tea plantations in the colonial era, they have said in a letter to him.

       Representatives of more than 100,000 Kenyans petitioned the Duke to intervene in the dispute, reminding him that the country is a “special place for you and your family”.

       Saying it was where Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton and where the Queen learned that she had acceded the throne, they argued they were suffering ongoing hardship due to “losing such precious land to profit-hungry corporations”.

       Claiming their “colonial past” was also the Duke’s, the petitioners said: “Where we inherited the pain, you inherited the profit.”

       The Duke has not yet responded directly to the petition. It is understood that the letter has been forwarded to the Foreign Office because it concerns a matter of foreign policy.

       It is the latest in a recent series of appeals to the Royal family from Commonwealth countries after Caribbean nations sought support in their appeal for reparations for slavery.

       This time, members of the Kipsigis and Talai tribes claim the British Government has “refused to acknowledge” the “immense suffering” in the colonial era 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, Kenya.

       The report found that the Kipsigis and Talai were forcefully removed from their ancestral lands in Kenya by the British Government from the 1920s onwards. The fertile land was turned into lucrative tea plantations for private companies supplying the West.

       Legal representatives of the surviving tribes are currently in London to meet with MPs, and posed with their letter to the Duke outside Clarence House, home of the Prince of Wales. They wrote to him because of his long affection for Kenya, a spokesman indicated.

       A spokesman for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office 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."