The Honourable Thomas Cholmondeley sought to pin the blame for the death of a poacher on a friend yesterday as he pleaded his innocence on the first day of his murder trial.

He said in a packed courtroom that he had misled police to protect Carl “Flash” Tundo, a Kenyan rally driver, who had also been carrying a gun on the fateful day two years ago.

“I didn’t mention this in my statement to the police because that night in the cells Flash was very upset and tearful,” said Mr Cholmondeley, who gave evidence in an unsworn statement, which meant that he could not be cross-examined.

“He asked me not to mention it [the pistol] for fear he would get into trouble.”

Time Archive, 1931: Obituary of Lord Delamere

To describe his services to the Empire in Africa with justice is no easy task. He revelled in controversy

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Speaking with a pristine English accent, the only heir to the 5th Baron Delamere insisted yesterday that he had not fired the fatal shot after he and his friend had stumbled on a party of poachers on his family’s ranch. He said that he had dropped to one knee and fired four rounds at the intruders’ dogs.

With the sound of his own shots echoing around the thickly wooded hills of the 58,000-acre Delamere estate, he said that he became aware of an injured man lying on the ground.

Seconds later Mr Tundo emerged from the bush carrying a pistol. The victim, Robert Njoya, died later in hospital. Yesterday, in a 90-minute testimony, Mr Cholmondeley said that Mr Njoya had not been in his field of vision when he pulled the trigger of his hunting rifle. “Had I shot him I would have expected him to be lying right where the dogs were,” he said.

Mr Cholmondeley, the scion of one of Kenya’s most famous white settler families, was arrested and charged with the murder a year after he was cleared of killing an undercover game warden. His parents, Lord and Lady Delamere, as well as the victim’s widow, attended the hearing yesterday.

His latest brush with the law has reminded older Kenyans of the White Mischief trial that highlighted the excesses of the Happy Valley set in the 1940s. This time white farmers, who have tried hard to lose the reputation for hedonism and racism earned by the original settlers, fear a backlash against the few families who still grow wheat or raise cows in the fertile Kenyan highlands.

Mr Cholmondeley’s arrest provoked angry demonstrations around the Delamere land, set deep in the heart of the Great Rift Valley. A handful of politicians used Mr Njoya’s funeral as a stage to call for a Zimbabwe-style land grab.

Few farmers will speak publicly about Mr Cholmondelely. Those who talk privately feel little sympathy for a man they blame for bringing unwanted attention on the 30,000 or so white Kenyans who stayed on after independence. “We have been here generations now and had really got the hang of keeping our heads down and staying out of trouble and minding our own business,” one said.

“Innocent or not, Tom just seems to have this habit of putting us back in the firing line.”

Sally Dudmesh, Mr Cholmondeley’s partner since he separated from his wife, said that it was vital the whole story was told.

“If people have followed the trial and the evidence then there will be no problem when he is found innocent,” she said. “If they haven’t followed it all then things might not be so good.”

Fred Ojiambo, Mr Cholmondeley’s lawyer, said that he planned to call six defence witnesses, including a ballistics expert from the police national firearms bureau.

The court is expected to finish hearing evidence later this month.

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