NAIROBI, Kenya – A descendant of Kenya's first white settlers, whose freewheeling ways inspired the book “White Mischief,” was charged with murder yesterday in a case that has exposed deep resentment about British colonialism in East Africa.
Thomas Cholmondeley pleaded not guilty to killing a black Kenyan – a region once dubbed “Happy Valley” because of the decadent lifestyles of its colonial settlers.
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 has 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.
Cholmondeley's attorney, Fred Ojiambo, said his client fired in self-defense both times.
“In this case, the lies are being orchestrated to make him look like the guy who shoots Africans for sport,” Ojiambo said. He added that the victim in the latest case unleashed several dogs on Cholmondeley after the man was caught poaching an impala.
Cholmondeley was aiming for the dogs – not 37-year-old Robert Njoya Wambugu, who was shot in the back and died en route to a hospital, the lawyer said.
Last year, a murder case against Cholmondeley was dropped amid high-level government intervention, enraging Kenyans who say he received special treatment because of he is an heir to Britain's Lord Delamere. In that case, Cholmondeley said he mistook an undercover game warden for a robber.
The cases have exposed deep tension about the British presence in Kenya, with many citizens resentful that the most precious land was taken over by the British government during colonial times. After independence in 1963, many departing settlers transferred land to Africans, with Britain underwriting some of the costs.
Some settlers, including Cholmondeley's family, kept their land and became Kenyan citizens. But now, an increasing number of Kenyans are saying the land simply doesn't belong to whites. Kenya's minister for immigration has even raised the unlikely prospect of deportation.
“We are aware of some white settlers and investors who are oppressing our people, and very soon we are going to act by deporting them,” Gideon Konchellah said.
And Wambugu's niece, 20-year-old Eunice Wangui, who lives in an area that borders Cholmondeley's Delamere Farm in Naivasha, said jail wasn't good enough for the defendant.
“I want him to be killed,” she said.
The case has gotten intense media scrutiny in part because of Cholmondeley's grandfather's place in Kenyan lore. The fourth Baron Delamere was married to Diana Broughton, whose lover was shot in the head on the outskirts of Nairobi in the 1940s.
Broughton's first husband, Jock Broughton, was tried for murder and acquitted, an episode that inspired the book “White Mischief,” which also was made into a 1987 film starring Charles Dance and Greta Scacchi.
