White Kenyan aristocrat Thomas Cholmondeley testifies not guilty in
Nairobi's High Court over charges he murdered a poacher in 2006. 

NAIROBI, KENYA (JULY 8, 2008)REUTERS -
The heir to Kenya's most famous white settler family told a murder
trial on Tuesday (July 8) he could not have shot a local stonemason who was
poaching on his land, implying that a friend might have killed the man
instead. 
    Thomas Cholmondeley, the great-grandson of Lord Delamere, admits
shooting dogs belonging to a group of poachers he confronted on his 55,000
acre Soysambu ranch in May 2006. 
    But the 40-year-old, in his first testimony since he was arrested more
than two years ago, denied shooting dead Robert Njoya. 
    The trial is the second murder case against the Eton-educated
aristocrat, who was also accused of killing a wildlife ranger in April 2005.

    That case was dropped for lack of evidence, triggering an outcry and
suggestions from many Kenyans that their country still had two sets of laws --
one for whites and one for blacks. 
    After his arrest, Cholmondeley told police that he and a friend had
been walking at his sprawling ranch when they saw five men carrying machetes,
bows and arrows and a dead impala. 
    In court on Tuesday, he said that his companion -- local rally driver
Carl Tundo -- had also been carrying a firearm, and Cholmondeley implied that
Tundo might have shot the poacher.  
    He said he did not tell police about Tundo's pistol at first because
Tundo, who he called Flash, had asked him not to. 
    Cholmondeley testified for about 90 minutes with his parents Lord and
Lady Delamere looking on. Also in court were his wife and Njoya's widow. 
    Both cases against Cholmondeley have fanned simmering colonial-era
resentment against white settlers who snatched large swathes of land for
themselves during British rule. 
    His family is one of Kenya's largest landowners and has lived in the
east African country for close to a century. 
    Although many Kenyans complain about white farmers, many others also
resent wealthy black Kenyans who gave themselves huge tracts of land after
independence from Britain in 1963.