|
Aristocrat dozes in court
06/02/2007 08:33 - (SA)
Nairobi - Aristocrat Thomas Cholmondeley, a descendant of one of Kenya's first white settlers, dozed in court on Monday as his trial on charges of murdering a black Kenyan resumed.
The son of the 5th Lord Delamere has been held in custody
since the case was adjourned in December, spending Christmas and
New Year's Day behind bars at Kamiti maximum security jail with
prisoners serving time for armed robbery, rape and murder.
Cholmondeley, 39, admits shooting stonemason Robert Njoya,
but denies murdering him on his father's acacia-dotted
55 000-acre farm last May.
The case has revived simmering colonial-era resentment
against whites who own massive tracts of land in the east
African country when many Kenyans have none.
Dressed in a light blue shirt, yellow tie and beige jacket,
Cholmondeley looked at times composed but repeatedly nodded off
during the hearing, where lawyers asked witnesses to
authenticate photographs of the crime scene and animals
allegedly killed by poachers on Soysambu Ranch.
Cholmondeley has told police he was taking an evening walk
on the ranch when he and a friend ran into five men armed with
machetes and bows and arrows, carrying a dead impala.
When the men were asked to stop, they set dogs on the pair.
Cholmondeley then shot the dogs and Njoya, police said. The men
with Njoya say they were fired on as they ran from Cholmondeley.
Cholmondeley's arrest came a year after prosecutors dropped
charges against him for killing wildlife ranger Samson ole
Sisina. The case sparked protests and calls for whites to be
forced from the lush land they have enjoyed since colonial
times.
|
News
