Peter Poole

Who was Peter Poole?

Peter Poole was a British-born Kenyan engineer and shop owner. He was the only white in Kenya to be executed for killing an indigenous African person.

On 12 October 1959 he was charged with killing Kamawe Musunge, Poole's houseboy, in Gordon Road, Nairobi. Musunge had been riding a bicycle when Poole's two dogs stopped him. Musunge threw stones at one dog, for which Poole shot Musunge dead with a Luger pistol. Poole was executed on 18 August 1960. At the time Kenya was still under British rule, and the verdict was received dismally by white settlers in Kenya, who could not accept that a white man could be sentenced for killing an indigenous African.

Poole had emigrated to Kenya from Essex and was an engineer by profession. He owned an electrical shop on Nairobi's Government Road. Poole served in the British Army during the Mau Mau Uprising. Peter Poole was married with two children. His father was Norman Poole.