Peter Poole
Quick Facts
Biography
Peter Poole (c.1932––18 August 1960 in Nairobi, Kenya) 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, his 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 him 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 some white settlers in the region.
Poole had emigrated to Kenya from Essex and was an engineer by profession. He owned an electrical shop on Nairobi's Government Road (now Moi Avenue). Poole served in the British Army during the Mau Mau Uprising. Poole was married with two children.