Kenyan aristocrat jailed for 8 months

NAIROBI – A Kenyan court has sentenced a descendant of one of the country’s most famous white settlers to eight months in prison for killing a black man on his vast estate.

Thomas Cholmondeley was convicted of manslaughter last week for the 2006 shooting of a 37-year-old black poacher and had faced a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Cholmondeley had initially been charged with murder and had been in prison since his arrest in May 2006 because bail is not granted for capital offenses in Kenya.
High Court Judge Muga Apondi reduced the charge to manslaughter on May 7, saying Cholmondeley showed no malice or intent when he shot Robert Njoya.
The prosecution said it would consider appealing the sentence. His sentence means he must now serve another eight months; Apondi said that, in passing sentence, he took into account the three years Cholmondeley had already spent behind bars.
The shooting of Njoya was the second time in just over a year that Cholmondeley had shot a black man to death on his vast, largely ungated farm in the Rift Valley. The lake-studded region was once dubbed ‘Happy Valley’ because of the decadent lifestyles of its colonial settlers.
‘I do believe deeply that the process has humbled the accused person,’ Apondi said yesterday. ‘In view of the total circumstances, I herby wish to impose a light sentence on the accused.’
Cholmondeley’s lawyer, Fred Ojiambo, said he was happy with the judge’s decision.
‘I think it is a reasonable sentence,’ said Ojiambo. ‘The judge was very just.’
Cholmondeley has spent about three years in a maximum security prison that is a long way from his luxurious upbringing. He was educated at Eton, one of Britain’s most exclusive schools, and is the great-grandson of the third Baron Delamere, one of Kenya’s first major white settlers more than a century ago.
The case has received intense media scrutiny because of Cholmondeley’s background.
– Nampa-AP