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White ranch owner gets 8 mnths for killing black poacher
White ranch owner gets 8 months for shooting dead black poacher
AFP
Posted: 5/14/2009 8:37:46 AM
NAIROBI, Kenya - A Kenyan court on Thursday sentenced Thomas Cholmondeley, the scion of the country’s foremost family of white settlers, to eight months in prison for shooting dead a black poacher on his ranch.
“I hereby sentence the accused to eight months in prison,” Nairobi high court judge Muga Apondi said. “I hereby wish... to impose a light sentence on the accused to allow him to reflect on his life.”
Apondi argued that the killing was not premeditated, that Cholmondeley had shown concern for the victim at the time of the accident and that he had already spent 1,097 days in custody.
But the prosecution lawyer Keriako Tobiko complained that the sentence was too lenient and that he would appeal.
“In all the cirsumstances eight months is quite far below the mark,” said Tobiko.
“We shall therefore... seek correction in the court of appeal in the review of that sentence so that the court of appeal can consider invoking a sentence that is fair and just, ” he added.
The Eton-educated aristocrat had been convicted of manslaughter over the death of Robert Njoya in May 2006 but Cholmondeley has only admitted to shooting dogs on his 55,000-acre Rift Valley ranch.
Cholmondeley sat cross-legged, still-faced and emotionless as the judge read out the sentence.
Lay assessors had already found Cholmondeley not guilty in March. But Apondi rejected the views of the assessors and cast doubt or dismissed some witness accounts.
Heir of Kenya’s most famous white settler, Cholmondeley, 40, better known in the region as 'Tom', had already faced murder charges after killing a Maasai game park ranger in 2005 but he argued legitimate self-defence.
That case was dropped for lack of evidence, fuelling accusations from the local black Kenyan community that a colonial-era two-speed judiciary was still in force in the country.
AFP
Posted: 5/14/2009 8:37:46 AM
NAIROBI, Kenya - A Kenyan court on Thursday sentenced Thomas Cholmondeley, the scion of the country’s foremost family of white settlers, to eight months in prison for shooting dead a black poacher on his ranch.
“I hereby sentence the accused to eight months in prison,” Nairobi high court judge Muga Apondi said. “I hereby wish... to impose a light sentence on the accused to allow him to reflect on his life.”
Apondi argued that the killing was not premeditated, that Cholmondeley had shown concern for the victim at the time of the accident and that he had already spent 1,097 days in custody.
But the prosecution lawyer Keriako Tobiko complained that the sentence was too lenient and that he would appeal.
“In all the cirsumstances eight months is quite far below the mark,” said Tobiko.
“We shall therefore... seek correction in the court of appeal in the review of that sentence so that the court of appeal can consider invoking a sentence that is fair and just, ” he added.
The Eton-educated aristocrat had been convicted of manslaughter over the death of Robert Njoya in May 2006 but Cholmondeley has only admitted to shooting dogs on his 55,000-acre Rift Valley ranch.
Cholmondeley sat cross-legged, still-faced and emotionless as the judge read out the sentence.
Lay assessors had already found Cholmondeley not guilty in March. But Apondi rejected the views of the assessors and cast doubt or dismissed some witness accounts.
Heir of Kenya’s most famous white settler, Cholmondeley, 40, better known in the region as 'Tom', had already faced murder charges after killing a Maasai game park ranger in 2005 but he argued legitimate self-defence.
That case was dropped for lack of evidence, fuelling accusations from the local black Kenyan community that a colonial-era two-speed judiciary was still in force in the country.
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