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Murder trial of British aristocrat opens in Nairobi

Kenya's chief prosecutor told the murder trial of one of the country's best-known aristocrats on Monday that Eton-educated Thomas Cholmondeley had deliberately shot a man for poaching and then tried to cover up his crime.

Cholmondeley, 38, sole heir to the vast estates in Kenya's Rift Valley of his parents, Lord and Lady Delamere, denies the murder of a 37-year-old stonemason, Robert Njoya.

The trial is politically charged because it is the second time in little more than a year that Cholmondeley has faced a murder charge for killing a black man, and because it touches on sensitivities about large landholdings remaining in the hands of the descendants of white colonists.

In his opening statement, the director of public prosecutions, Keriako Tobiko, said the evidence would show that Cholmondeley had deliberately shot at Njoya and two other men who encroached on to his 22,600-hectare estate in search of game.

Tobiko described how on the day of the killing in May, Njoya and his companions had ventured on to Cholmondeley's estate to check illegal snares they had set to catch game. The men were armed with machetes, clubs and a spear and accompanied by six dogs. Cholmondeley had caught up with the men after they found a gazelle in a snare and began butchering it. The prosecution alleges that at that point he opened fire with intent to kill.

Tobiko said Njoya had been running away when he was shot and that Cholmondeley "was not under any attack."

Before the trial, Cholmondeley said he had opened fire because the poachers' dogs were attacking him and that he had accidentally hit Njoya.

Although Cholmondeley is on trial for murder, the judge can convict him on a lesser charge such as manslaughter.

Last year Cholmondeley was charged with murder after he shot dead a government wildlife ranger in pursuit of poachers on Delamere land. The charges were dropped for lack of evidence.
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