A Kenyan court ruled on Wednesday that Thomas Cholmondely, the British aristocrat charged with shooting to death a trespasser on his ancestral ranch last year must produce his defense in the case that has torn open old colonial-era wounds.
Cholmondeley, son of the fifth Baron Delamere and great- grandson of Kenya's most prominent early settler, is charged with killing poacher Robert Njoya on May 10, 2006.
The 39-year old descendant of Lord Delamere has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Njoya, a local stonemason he accuses of poaching on his land.
But he has admitted shooting Njoya, saying he was acting on self-defense after being threatened by men on the Delameres' Soysambu ranch in Kenya's Rift Valley, about 90 km north-west of the capital, where crime against Europeans has been on the rise.
But prosecutors say Cholmondeley intentionally shot Njoya while he was running away and then tried to cover up the crime by tampering with evidence at the scene.
So far, the prosecution has called 38 witnesses in the trial, in which Cholmondeley faces the mandatory death sentence if convicted. Kenya has not carried out a death sentence since 1987.
On Wednesday, Justice Muga Apondi ruled that the prosecution had established a strong case to warrant the accused to defend himself.
"After carefully considering the evidence adduced by 38 witnesses, the prosecution has established a prima facie case for the accused to be put on his defence," Justice Apondi ruled.
The flamboyantly dressed Cholmondely stood impassively in a packed Nairobi court as the Judge made his ruling for the trial that sent shockwaves across the spine of many observers in the east African nation.
Cholmondeley's attorney Fred Ojiambo told the court that he would call seven witnesses including a police officer from the national firearms bureau to prove his case.
The trial, which is the second murder case against the aristocrat, has stirred resentment dating back to British colonial times in a case human rights groups call "a fight between the haves and have-nots."
In 2005, Cholmondeley escaped by a whisker murder charges over the killing of another Kenyan on his property at the same ranch where the latest murder was committed.
The Kenyan government, however, dropped the case for lack of evidence, sparking public protests, with many Kenyans accusing the authorities of applying the country's laws selectively.
Cholmondeley's great-grandfather, the third Baron Delamere, was a key player in Britain's colonization of Kenya, overseeing the settlement of the so-called"white highlands".
Source: Xinhua
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