The prosecutor in the case of an old Etonian accused of murder in Kenya insisted yesterday that being educated at Britain’s most famous public school, and steeped in the values of loyalty, did not explain why the Honourable Thomas Cholmondeley had changed his story to police.

Lawyer Tobiko Keriako said Cholmondeley’s claim that he was not the murderer but had tried to protect a friend by taking responsibility for the killing was, “simply not believable”.

Cholmondeley, sole heir to the fifth Baron Delamere, is on trial accused of murdering a poacher shot dead on his family’s vast estate.

The case has aroused strong feelings in a nation where white settler families continue to own prime farming land more than 40 years after independence. The Delameres were among the first arrivals in a wave of European farmers who would eventually become notorious as the “Happy Valley” set.

Cholmondeley’s defence has centred on the role of his friend, Carl Tundo, one of Kenya’s top rally drivers. The gangly aristocrat initially told police that his Winchester rifle was the only gun involved in the shooting.

But in court, the 40-year-old changed his story and said Tundo had also carried and fired a handgun, casting doubt on who fired the shot that killed Robert Njoya.

His advocate, Fred Ojiambo, said Cholmondeley had at first been guided by misplaced loyalty which he said was developed in Britain and Kenya’s top public schools, as well as the effects of post traumatic stress disorder.

However, Keriako, Kenya’s director of public prosecution, said: “Whether someone went to Pembroke or Eton - which most of us have not - the natural course of events, the natural human conduct, is self-preservation, self-interest.”

He poured scorn on the idea that Cholmondeley had agreed to take the blame during a tearful night in the cells.

“Indeed it would be to infer in the accused person attributes that are known only to be possessed by Jesus Christ of the Bible, one who came down to earth and agreed to take the cross for our sins,” he said.

The case has dragged on for more than two years.

Njoya was found bleeding to death on the Delamere’s land back in 2006. Cholmondeley and Tundo had been scouting the family estate for a suitable place to build a house when they came across a poaching party.

Cholmondeley said he fired his hunting rifle four times to kill the poacher’s dogs but denied shooting the poacher.

A forensic pathologist, appearing as a defence witness, said the wounds to Njoya could not have been caused by a high-powered rifle such as Cholmondeley’s.

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