White Kenyan Again Charged With Murder

White Kenyan Again Charged With Murder

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY
The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 24, 2006; 1:34 PM

NAIROBI, Kenya -- A descendant of Kenya's first white settlers, whose freewheeling ways inspired the book "White Mischief," was charged with murder Wednesday in a case that has exposed deep resentment about British colonialism in East Africa.

Thomas Cholmondeley pleaded not guilty to killing a black Kenyan on his 100,000-acre property in the fertile Rift Valley _ a region once dubbed "Happy Valley" because of the decadent lifestyles of its colonial settlers.



Thomas Cholmondeley the great-grandson of Britain's third Baron Delamere is flanked by two police officers in the Nairobi court, Wednesday, May 24, 2006. A descendant of one of Kenya's first white settlers, he was charged in a second murder case Wednesday and pleaded not guilty in the shooting death of a black man he suspected of poaching on his sprawling ranch. Thomas Cholmondeley's ancestry _ he is the great-grandson of Britain's third Baron Delamere _ and the first case's dismissal after high-level government intervention have focused attention on race relations and lingering resentment about colonialism in this East African nation. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo) (Karel Prinsloo - AP)


When asked to answer to the charge of murder, Cholmondeley replied: "Not true."

Cholmondeley, 38, could face the death penalty if convicted in the case, which marks the second time in just over a year that he's fatally shot a black man on the vast, largely ungated farm that's prone to frequent intrusions. He carries a rifle for safety, as is common in rural Africa.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/24/AR2006052401067.html