'White Mischief' prosecutor is sacked on live TV

Kenya's top prosecutor has been sacked only days after dropping a high-profile murder charge against a prominent British aristocrat.

Philip Murgor received the call that relieved him of his duties as he was appearing on a live television programme yesterday to answer criticism over his handling of a number of well-publicised cases.

Mr Murgor told a court last week that there was insufficient evidence to proceed against the great-grandson of one of Kenya's first British settlers, the 3rd Baron Delamere.

Thomas Cholmondeley - a descendant of Lord Delamere who achieved notoriety in the colonial-era novel White Mischief by James Fox - had admitted killing an undercover Kenya Wildlife Service ranger, Samson ole Sisina, on his ranch last year. He has insisted that the shooting was in self-defence because the ranger did not identify himself and fired first.

The decision to drop charges against Mr Cholmondeley provoked outrage in many quarters of Kenyan society, with Masai groups accusing the aristocrat of being above the law. The case highlighted tensions in the Rift Valley between wealthy landowners concerned over the security of their holdings and the Masai population demanding compensation over what they say was the historical theft of their land.

No official reason was given for the abrupt sacking but government sources said that Mr Murgor had "acted unprofessionally".

The appointment of a Masai lawyer to succeed Mr Murgor was taken as further indication that the murder case was behind his dismissal. The appointee is expected to review the case, and rumours that Mr Cholmondeley may flee the country were fuelled by the arrest on his estate of a British pilot who had entered Kenyan airspace illegally.

However, the prosecutor countered this by saying he had been sidelined because of his investigations into government fraud and cocaine smuggling involving influential people.

Mr Murgor has been criticised for his handling of several cases, including continuing trials against nine suspects in a terror attack in 2002 and his refusal to prosecute President Mwai Kibaki's wife for slapping a journalist in an incident caught on camera.