Cholmondeley murder trial

But the men said he fired as they fled from him. Njoya, a year old father of four boys, died after a bullet fired by Cholmondeley nicked an artery in his pelvis. In May , he was acquitted of murder but found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to eight months at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. He was released in October, following the three-year trial at the High Court in Nairobi.

Prison officials said it was normal for those with less than six months left on their sentences to be released early for good behaviour. The two cases fanned simmering colonial-era resentment against settlers who snatched large swathes of land during British rule. Aristocrat Tom Cholmondeley, accused twice of murder, dies aged Register Sign In. Advertise with us Call: Email: [email protected]. In May, a year almost to the day after the murder charge was thrown out, Mr Cholmondeley shot dead another black Kenyan.

Nairobi's The Standard newspaper summed up the national outrage on its front page: "Oh no, not again! Mr Cholmondeley said he was walking through the bush on his land with a friend when they came across four men carrying a dead impala.

He said the men were poachers who set their dogs on him and that he defended himself by attempting to shoot the animals but accidentally killed Robert Njoya. The men at Mr Njoya's side when he was shot dispute that account but give widely differing versions of what happened.

One has said they did not even see Mr Cholmondeley when he opened fire but another has described how they were questioned at gunpoint and then shot at when they tried to escape. Masai villagers demanded that the landowner "not be allowed to get away with it a second time". Cabinet ministers and tribal leaders tramped to the door of Mr Njoya's widow, Sarah Waithera, ostensibly to offer their condolences.

She calls Mr Cholmondeley heartless and an animal. While Mr Cholmondeley has been awaiting trial in Nairobi's grim Kamiti high-security prison, the murder charge has prompted wider questioning of the nature and role of these descendants of white settlers. According to his police reports, Cholmondeley fired after he was threatened by the poachers. He told me it was during the confrontation that he decided to shoot the dogs one by one.

During the endeavor to shoot to shoot the dogs, the bullet hit the injured man, who later died. According to police sergeant Patrick Khamati Mukolwe, who was called as a witness, Njoya died soon after arriving at the hospital, the Daily Nation reported. On November 3, Cholmondeley, along with police, lawyers, and the judge, returned to the scene of the shooting to establish details of who was where when Njoya was shot, according to Reuters.

Outside Online will continue to update this site when a verdict is announced. Thomas Cholmondeley, heir to the 5th Baron Delamere, was speaking at the start of his defence case at Nairobi high court. He has been held in Kamiti maximum security prison since May , when he was arrested for the murder of Robert Njoya on his family's 58,acre Soysambu estate in the Rift Valley.

At the time, Cholmondeley told police that he had accidentally shot Njoya with a hunting rifle while aiming for the poachers' dogs, which had charged him. But yesterday, before a packed court, Cholmondeley insisted that he had not fired the fatal bullet. While stopping short of accusing his friend Carl "Flash" Tundo, a white Kenyan farmer and rally driver, of killing Njoya, Cholmondeley told the court that Tundo had also fired his pistol that fateful evening.

He asked me not to mention it for fears that he would get into trouble. Tundo, who has already been cross-examined as part of the prosecution case, denies having a gun at the scene.

If Cholmondeley is acquitted, Tundo could in theory be charged with murder. The drawn-out case has attracted huge coverage and debate in Kenya. The Delameres are the best-known white family in the country, and though their land holdings are dwarfed by those of the elite Kenyan political dynasties, they are big enough to cause jealousy and resentment. Even before the Njoya shooting, Cholmondeley was the object of some notoriety, having avoided prosecution for killing an undercover wildlife inspector at Soysambu in after the attorney general threw out the case.

Cholmondeley's girlfriend, Sally Dudmesh, was in court yesterday, as were several of his friends.