White Kenyan aristocrat convicted of shooting poacher

By Humphrey Malalo and Wangui Kanina

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The heir to Kenya's most famous white settler family was convicted on Thursday of shooting a black poacher on his estate in a case highlighting the east African nation's delicate colonial legacy.

The High Court acquitted Tom Cholmondeley -- a descendant of Lord Delamere who came to Kenya from Britain a century ago -- of murder but found him guilty of manslaughter in the 2006 death of Robert Njoya on the family's 55,000-acre ranch.

"My hope is that this ruling will act to warn errant white farmers that there is rule of law in this country," said Benjamin Mungania, a human rights activist in the Naivasha area where Cholmondeley and his family come from.

Justice Muga Apondi said sentencing would be given at a later day, meaning Cholmondeley's dream of walking free on Thursday after three years in jail was dashed.

He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The long-running trial has touched on deep sensibilities over race and ownership inequities in the east African country.

Some called it a case "between the haves and have-nots."

The judge said he was sympathetic to Cholmondeley's argument of self-defence in the confrontation with Njoya after finding him pursuing wildlife with dogs on the family's property near Lake Naivasha in Kenya's Great Rift Valley.