KENYA:A WHITE Kenyan aristocrat accused of murder has tried to shift the blame to a friend who was with him on the day a poacher was shot dead.
Thomas Cholmondeley (40) faces spending the rest of his life in prison if he is found guilty of murdering Robert Njoya on his family's vast estate.
Yesterday, after waiting two years to give evidence, he admitted misleading police to protect Carl "Flash" Tundo, a Kenyan rally driver, who had also been carrying a gun.
Speaking with a cut-glass English accent, the only heir to the fifth Baron Delamere said he and his friend had stumbled across a party of poachers on his family's vast ranch. He dropped to one knee and fired four rounds at their dogs.
With the sound of his own shots echoing around the thickly wooded hills of the 58,000-acre Delamere estate, he said he became aware of an injured man lying on the ground. Seconds later Mr Tundo emerged from the bush carrying a pistol, which he used to kill one of the dogs.
"I didn't mention this in my statement to the police because that night in the cells Flash was very upset and tearful," said Mr Cholmondeley, who gave evidence in an unsworn statement which meant he could not be cross-examined.
"He asked me not to mention it for fear he would get into trouble."
Friends say it is typical of the gangly Old Etonian to protect his friend by taking the blame for a tragic accident.
It came only a year after the separated father of two was charged and then cleared of the murder of an undercover game warden in an apparent act of self-defence.
The latest case has reminded older Kenyans of the White Mischief trial which highlighted the excesses of the Happy Valley set in the 1940s. This time, white farmers, who have tried hard to lose the reputation for hedonism and racism earned by the original settlers, fear a backlash against the few families who still grow wheat or raise cattle in the fertile Kenyan highlands.
Mr Cholmondeley has insisted there was no way he could have killed Mr Njoya.
The trial is expected to finish hearing evidence later this month.