Last White Man Standing
Tom Cholmondeley, heir to the largest white-owned estate in Kenya, stands accused of murdering a black poacher on his land. The film follows the case and gives an in-depth look at its sociopolitical context.
Tom Cholmondeley, grandson of one of the founders of white colonial Kenya, was on the verge of inheriting one of the last great estates in Kenya as well as the title Lord Delamere. But instead, he found himself on trial in Nairobi in 2006, charged with murdering a black poacher on his land. Serah Njoya, the poacher’s widow with four children, wants her husband’s killer brought to justice.
For three years, the trial gripped the nation. Many saw a racist with the trigger finger, while others saw Cholmondeley circumstance as an embodiment of the contrast between the lives of a few wealthy Kenyan landowners and the lower castes who struggle simply to feed themselves.