Nairobi - A white aristocrat descended from Kenya's most prominent settler family was released Friday from prison five months after being jailed for the manslaughter of a black poacher on his estate in 2006.

Old Etonian Thomas Cholmondeley, 40, was sentenced to eight months in prison in May for killing Robert Njoya, an unemployed stonemason who died from a gunshot wound to his pelvic area while poaching on the 50,000-acre Soysambu ranch in Kenya's Rift Valley.

Prison officials said that Cholmondeley was released early due to good behaviour.

During the trial, the prosecution alleged that Cholmondeley, the great-grandson of a British peer who settled in Kenya in the late 19th century, had deliberately shot Njoya. However, the judge ruled that malice aforethought could not be proven.

Cholmondeley served his time in the grim Kamiti prison, where he spent three years on remand awaiting trial.

The case attracted huge media attention and stirred up anti- colonial sentiment.

It was the second time that Cholmondeley had been charged with murdering a black Kenyan. He escaped conviction in 2005 after an undercover Masai game ranger was shot dead on his estate.

That first acquittal sparked furious protests from local Masai leaders, who still harbour resentment about what they see as the theft of their land.

Thomas Cholmondeley's great-grandfather, the third Baron Delamare, became one of the leaders of white British settlers and claimed huge swathes of land, including the Soysambu ranch.(dpa)