Watts and Betchart murder case

Harry Watts, a European settler, operated a farm in the British East Africa Protectorate. On 2 April 1918, he was summoned by two black employees who had caught a black Kenyan named Mutunga, apparently in the act of stealing a bag of flour from the farm. Watts beat Mutunga with a kiboko whip, leaving him seriously wounded. He ordered his farm manager Cyprian Betchart, another European, to take Mutunga to the police station. Betchart instead tied him up in his house before carrying him away later that night and attempting to burn his body. The fire was seen by a black Kenyan who alerted the police, who arrested the two Europeans on murder charges.

An Asian police surgeon determined Mutunga had suffered multiple injuries but had died by strangulation. Watts and Betchart were tried at the High Court in September. Their defence lawyer attempted to discredit the police surgeon and the black witnesses. The all-European jury returned not-guilty verdicts on the murder charges and found each man guilty only on less serious charges of hurt. The men received fines of 1,000 shillings. In Britain the sentence was considered lenient, and the Colonial Office demanded a report from the colonial authorities. East African attorney general Jacob William Barth considered that juries in Kenya were biased in favour of Europeans. After several other cases and further pressure from Britain, legal reform was finally achieved in 1930 by removing the Indian Penal Code laws that permitted juries to return lesser charges in murder cases.