Tense moments at final verdict

Judging by the attention it received, the ruling on the murder case against Thomas Patrick Gilbert Cholmondeley was the most awaited event at the courts this year. Rarely in Kenya do you have a white man, an aristocrat, being charged with the murder of a poor black stone mason.

Two hours before Mr Justice Muga Apondi stepped in Court No 4 of the High Court in Nairobi, there was unusual movement on the corridors.

Laying cables

Television crews were laying cables and their colleagues with still cameras were in the corridors, clicking away to check that their cameras were working. Outside the court, at the adjacent compound of the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, several Outside Broadcasting vans were beaming the event live.

At the end, there were to be 20 video cameras in the courtroom and numerous photographers. A little after 9am, the accused’s family- Lord Hughes Delamere, Lady Ann Delamere and the mother of Tom’s children- made their way to the court and settled in the second bench, behind the lawyers’ designated area.

Lord Delamere, apparently used to the numerous flashlights of photographers’ cameras, quickly settled down to read Angel Eyes, a novel by Jane Adams. Lady Ann was all smiles, perhaps confident that for the first time in three years, she would travel back to Soysambu with her only child, and exchanged pleasant greetings as families and friends filed in.

Lord Delamere maintained his expressionless mask throughout the two hours and 55 minutes of the ruling. Mrs Sarah Njoya, the woman whose husband’s killing was at the centre of the three-year case, walked in 15 minutes later dressed in a grey leather jacket, pink skirt suit, white head scarf and white sneakers. She looked solemn and pensive but exchanged greetings with the Lord Delamere family quite pleasantly as she sat next to them.

Hour of judgment

The courtroom quickly filled up with a mixture of the Delameres and friends on one side and police officers, journalists and prison warders on the other. The crowd spilt over from the public gallery into the court corridors as 10.30am, the appointed hour of judgement, neared.

Soon after, with two lines of prison warders in riot gear lining the corridor, Mr Tom Cholmondeley was led from the basement cells to the courtroom and was immediately surrounded by press photographers. At one point, prison warders and police officers elbowed them away.

Soon, the face betraying no emotion, Mr Cholmondeley fixed his eyes on a spot above the press gallery. He was, unlike murder suspects who appeared in the court in the morning, smart in a navy blue suit, blue shirt and red tie and a matching handkerchief stuck in the pocket.

Finally stood

With both director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko and defence lawyer Fred Ojiambo in full court dress, the ruling began at 10.40am. In between, the accused stood for some time but later sat as cramping settled in and some journalists sat on the wooden floor.

The accused stood when the final, crucial part of the ruling started and everybody’s eyes turned to the man in the white wig and scarlet robe. When nearly three hours later Mr Justice Muga Apondi ruled that the charge had been reduced from murder to manslaughter and Mr Cholmondeley found guilty and convicted, there was silence.

Remand prison

The prosecution appeared happy, the defence sad and Mr Cholmondeley’s relatives and friends were weeping. As the Nation left the courts, Mr Cholmondeley’s family was still waiting to catch a glimpse of him being led once again out of the basement cells to remand prison.

They are bound to be in court on Tuesday to await judgment on the case, but until then, they have to keep guessing what the final ruling will be. It is not Tom’s day yet.