KENYA: A descendant of Kenya's most famous white settler stands trial today charged with killing a man on his Rift Valley ranch in a case that has stirred simmering animosities dating back to colonial times.
Thomas Cholmondeley, the 38-year-old great-grandson of Lord Delamere, one of the original British settlers to Kenya, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Robert Njoya, a local stonemason he accuses of poaching on his land.
Mr Cholmondeley's arrest in May came nearly a year after prosecutors dropped charges against him for killing a wildlife ranger. He had admitted shooting Samson Ole Sisina, but denied murder, saying he thought Sisina was a robber.
A photo of Mr Cholmondeley flashing a thumbs-up after charges were dropped enraged many Kenyans who saw it as proof of continued white privilege 40 years after Kenya's independence.
Hundreds protested after the second killing and called for white settlers to be removed from the lush east African country where resentment runs high over inequities in land ownership. It is especially visible in Naivasha, where Mr Cholmondeley runs his 50,000-acre (20,240 hectare) Soysambu Ranch, teeming with eland, zebra and giraffes, amid pristine foreign-owned flower farms drawing dirt-poor workers living in nearby slums.
Touching on emotive issues of land distribution, poverty, race and crime, rights activists say the case will be a big test of Kenya's justice system, viewed with scepticism by many.
"We will keenly watch the trial as this will be a fight between the poor and oppressed against the mighty," Edward Indimuli of the Kenya Human Rights Commission said.
Mr Cholmondeley has told police he was taking an evening walk on his farm when he and a friend ran into five men armed with machetes, bows and arrows, carrying a dead impala. When the men were asked to stop, they set dogs on him and his companion, and he then shot the dogs and Mr Njoya, he told police.
Since his arrest, Mr Cholmondeley has been detained in Kamiti maximum security prison, locked up with prisoners serving jail terms for armed robbery, rape and murder. If convicted, he could face the gallows, although hangings in Kenya are rare.