Fatal shooting case in Kenya fuels racial tensions

Fatal shooting case in Kenya fuels racial tensions
AP, NAIROBI
Friday, Jul 27, 2007, Page 6

A descendant of one of Kenya's most famous white settlers must mount a defense in a murder case that has stoked racial tension in this East African nation, a court ruled on Wednesday.

Thomas Cholmondeley, who is in his late 30s, has acknowledged fatally shooting a black man on his vast estate last May, but says it was in self-defense. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Kenya allows courts to end a trial before the defendant presents a case if the judge find prosecutors have not shown enough evidence. But on Wednesday, Justice Muga Apondi said Cholmondeley must present a defense.

"After carefully considering the evidence adduced I have come to the conclusion that the prosecution has established prima facie case to require him put on his defense," Apondi said.

Cholmondeley's lawyer, Fred Ojiambo said he plans to call seven witnesses.

The case marks the second time in just over a year that Cholmondeley killed a black man on the family's sprawling farm in the Rift Valley -- a region dubbed "Happy Valley" because of the decadent lifestyles of its colonial settlers. Charges were dropped in the earlier case, prompting protests that Cholmondeley got special treatment.

Both cases have exposed deep tensions about the British presence in Kenya, with many citizens resentful that the best land was taken over by the British government during colonial times. After Kenya's 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.
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