The jury, which was all-European and composed of Abraham's acquaintances, found him guilty of a lesser charge of "grievous hurt" and he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment.

A succession of British secretaries of state attempted to impose legal reform on the colony, though these were resisted by Chief Justice of Kenya Sir Jacob William Barth and Governor Edward Grigg, 1st Baron Altrincham.

After five more strokes from Bariche, Kitosh appeared to faint, but Abraham judged that he was feigning unconsciousness and threw four buckets of water over him.

[4] Abraham and his employees were charged with murder and brought to trial at Nakuru High Court in June, in a case overseen by judge Joseph Alfred Sheridan.

[1] A request by the Attorney General of Kenya, Robert William Lyall-Grant, to move the trial to the capital, Nairobi, was rejected on the grounds of cost and inconvenience to the witnesses.

[1] Abraham's defence barrister successfully argued for Kitosh's April 1923 escape attempt not to be discussed in court as he thought it would prejudice his case.

[5] Henderson, who was an experienced surgeon and well respected by the police, described that he found deep internal bruising on Kitosh's body and described the wounds to the man's buttocks as of a severity he had never seen.

[6] The defence counsel called two local general practitioners to provide medical evidence, Arthur John Jex-Blake and Gerald Victor Wright Anderson.

[1] Lengthy floggings were common in Kenya at the time, particularly in cases concerning livestock, which held high value to farmers at this early stage of settlement.

[10] Around the time of the verdict the Legal Department's Native Punishments Commission reported that the settlers were in favour of more draconian laws against black Kenyans, particularly for labour-related offences.

The Secretary of State for the Colonies, Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire, responded in December criticising the Kenyan judiciary for its actions in a "crime which appears to me to offer no extenuating circumstances" and noting that he considered the case ought to have been found to be manslaughter as a minimum.

[14] The Colonial Office considered that the court in the Abraham case had failed to respect the medical evidence provided by Henderson and that Sheridan had misused his discretion in awarding a light sentence.

[15] Cavendish considered the treatment of homicide by the Indian Penal Code insufficient and ordered Lyall-Grant to draw up local ordinance to bring procedures more into line with the English legal model used in other colonies.

He also ordered that trials be held outside the home district of the defendant and that the Kenyan Attorney-General closely monitor the operation of the jury system in the colony.

The Chief Justice of Kenya, Sir Jacob William Barth, opposed these measures, which he thought interfered with the proper operation of the legal system.

[15] The October 1924 United Kingdom general election returned the Conservative Party to power and Thomas' replacement, Leo Amery, pursued the case for legal reform in Kenya.

[15] The response stated that a change in policy on corporal punishment would "serve no useful purpose" as the practice of flogging would "decrease as natives become more aware of their legal rights and remedies".

[18] Amery's response, addressed to Edward Grigg, who had replaced an unwell Coryndon in October 1925, ordered that a public statement be made by the colonial government against corporal punishment.

[18] With Grigg's opposition, widescale change did not occur until 1930 when the Colonial Office ordered that the Indian Penal Code be replaced with a system based on English law.

After this point Kenyan juries occasionally returned unexpected verdicts, but with the discretion allowed by the Indian Penal Code's treatment of homicide removed, these became less common.

The administration of Governor Joseph Byrne (1931–38) saw settlers receiving less lenient treatment and legal reforms brought in that reduced the discretion allowed to judges on sentencing.

[20] The killing of Kitosh is portrayed in Danish-Kenyan novelist Karen Blixen's Kitosch's [sic] Story, part of her 1937 work Out of Africa.

Blixen's account of the case romanticised Kitosh's killing and accepted the theory of his intent to commit suicide, but does not wholly exonerate Abraham.