Masai Threat to Invade Farms After Aristocrat is Freed

[chlamor]

Masai threat to invade farms after aristocrat is freed
By Meera Selva, Africa Correspondent

19 May 2005

The Masai community threatened to invade white-owned farms after the heir to Kenya's most prominent white-settler family walked out of jail after murder charges against him were dropped.

Tribal leaders claim the government has whitewashed the case to protect the reputation of the Delamere family, the earliest and most famous white settlers in Kenya who became known for their hedonistic "Happy Valley" lifestyle.

Thomas Cholmondeley, 37, son of the 5th Baron Delamere, was accused of shooting a Masai game warden who had driven on to his 100,000-acre Soysambu ranch in the Rift Valley. But Kenya's attorney general, Amos Wako, said yesterday that there was not enough evidence for the case to proceed. He directed an inquest to be held, the date to be set next week, to the fury of the Masai community who believed Mr Cholmondeley, who is a Kenyan citizen, should be tried for murder.

The relatives of Samson Ole Sisina, the 45-year-old warden who was killed, told The Independent his death would be avenged. "The life of this man was very important to us and we will take action," his nephew, Samuel Dere, said. "If there is no justice for him, hundreds will die to defend him. How can they say there is no evidence when a man is dead and his body buried? The Delameres did not even send one person to his burial."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=639578

[rfranklin]

1. It's amazing that the Masai have not killed these whites...

They are arrogant assholes who moved in under colonial rule, stole the land and treated the Africans as slaves during those days.