The end of a dynasty ?

The end of a dynasty? Aristocrat faces second murder trial in Kenya· Delamere heir at centre of highly charged case· Calls for death penalty after shooting on estate Chris McGreal in NairobiSaturday September 23, 2006 .
The Honourable Thomas Cholmondeley, sole heir to some of the largest family landholdings in Kenya and likely to be the next Lord Delamere if the gallows do not intrude, will step into the dock of a Nairobi courtroom on Monday to plead not guilty to a murder charge for a single killing.
But much of Kenya will view the outcome of the trial as a verdict on two deaths, for it is the second time Mr Cholmondeley has appeared in court accused of murder in little more than a year over the shooting of poor black Kenyans.

The first time the prosecution dropped the charges for lack of evidence, although the decision last year was widely taken as proof of the continued influence of the Delamere family more than a century after it led the British aristocratic charge to grab Kenyan land and establish the Rift Valley as a decadent colonial playground.
This time Mr Cholmondeley, 38 and divorced with two sons, faces a tougher time winning the benefit of the doubt in a politically and racially charged trial that has captivated Kenya.
Some of those demanding his neck - he potentially faces execution if convicted, but it is a long time since Kenya hanged anyone - see the trial as a stand against the legacy of imperialism symbolised by the Delameres. No other African country has the almost subservient relationship with the descendants of white settlers found in Kenya.
For others the trial is more personal. Mr Cholmondeley, a 6ft 2in Eton-educated aristocratic anachronism with a reputation for a fierce temper and a scar running the length of his leg after he was attacked by a buffalo in Tanzania, is particularly loathed by many of the Masai villagers living on the edge of this sprawling 22,600 hectare (56,000 acre) estate.
Accounts swirled around in the Kenyan press of his alleged abuse of people venturing on to his land to collect firewood or allowing their livestock to encroach. But the killings have prompted more serious accusations.
"In this case the lies are being orchestrated to make him look like the guy who shoots Africans for sport," Mr Cholmondeley's lawyer, Fred Ojiambo, said.
That is precisely what some Kenyans think.
"The Delameres have always treated Kenyans with contempt," said William ole Ntimama, a Masai MP and long-term critic of Mr Cholmondeley. "They stole our land in the first place and now they think we are part of the wildlife."
Mr Cholmondeley, the financial director of the vast family estates owned by his septuagenarian parents, Lord and Lady Delamere, was first charged with murder last year for killing an undercover ranger with the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Samson ole Sisina was questioning estate staff about the slaughter of a buffalo which, it turned out, had been illegally killed by Mr Cholmondeley. Mr Cholmondeley told police he saw his staff being held at gunpoint and thought they were being robbed. He said Mr Sisina shot at him - it was later established a bullet was fired from the ranger's gun - and he returned five shots from his Luger pistol.
"I am most bitterly remorseful at the enormity of my mistake," Mr Cholmondeley told police.
The police charged him with murder but prosecutors told the court there was insufficient evidence to prove he did not act in self-defence and the charges were withdrawn a month later.
Mr Sisina's widow, Seenoi, was left to rely on handouts to feed their eight children while Mr Cholmondeley returned home. His release prompted widespread protests in Nairobi and from Masai who threatened to occupy Delamere land, a reflection of the long and difficult relationship between the tribe and the family.
The decision to halt the trial was so politically charged that the government lawyer responsible for freeing Mr Cholmondeley was sacked.
In May, a year almost to the day after the murder charge was thrown out, Mr Cholmondeley shot dead another black Kenyan. Nairobi's The Standard newspaper summed up the national outrage on its front page: "Oh no, not again!"
Mr Cholmondeley said he was walking through the bush on his land with a friend when they came across four men carrying a dead impala. He said the men were poachers who set their dogs on him and that he defended himself by attempting to shoot the animals but accidentally killed Robert Njoya.
The men at Mr Njoya's side when he was shot dispute that account but give widely differing versions of what happened. One has said they did not even see Mr Cholmondeley when he opened fire but another has described how they were questioned at gunpoint and then shot at when they tried to escape.
Masai villagers demanded that the landowner "not be allowed to get away with it a second time". The Kenya Human Rights Commission described Mr Cholmondeley as "trigger happy".
Cabinet ministers and tribal leaders tramped to the door of Mr Njoya's widow, Sarah Waithera, ostensibly to offer their condolences. She calls Mr Cholmondeley heartless and an animal.
"I have four young children and no one to buy the food," she said.
While Mr Cholmondeley has been awaiting trial in Nairobi's grim Kamiti high-security prison, the murder charge has prompted wider questioning of the nature and role of these descendants of white settlers. Many ordinary Kenyans wonder how it is that the Delameres continue to cling to their land and retain their influence to the extent that seven years ago Kenya's then president, Daniel arap Moi, awarded Mr Cholmondeley a national medal.
Some are now speaking favourably of the redistribution of land by Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe.
Among the hundreds of people who turned out for Mr Njoya's funeral was Stephen Tarus, a deputy local government minister. "It is time for these white settlers who are killing our sons to be kicked out of the country as they are of no assistance," he told the mourners.
Backstory
The Delameres put Kenya's Rift Valley on the map for many Britons. Hugh Cholmondeley, the 3rd Baron Delamere, arrived in 1903 trailed by a troop of aristocratic friends.
They swindled the Masai out of large tracts of land and turned the valley into a playground for the over-privileged, giving rise to the tag Happy Valley, immortalised in the book and film White Mischief about sex, drugs and murder among the aristocracy in Kenya during the second world war.
The clan kept most of its lands, planes and luxury cars after independence in 1963, currying favour with the government. Daniel arap Moi, president from 1978 to 2002, looked favourably on the family and it still wielded considerable influence.

THE GUARDIAN , 23rd September 2006