Former UK Soldier Accused of Murdering Kenya Female Appears in Court

A suspect has appeared in court as extradition proceedings started in the investigation of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a woman of Kenyan origin who was killed near a British army base in the year 2012.

Robert Purkiss, 38, who is hailing from the Manchester area, was presented at the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and informed the court he would challenge the extradition request. Sources suggest that he was detained on Thursday evening.

A detention order for the suspect was authorized by a court in Nairobi in the month of September. The state attorneys informed the Kenyan judiciary that Purkiss had been charged with a sole charge, of murder, and that the Kenyan authorities would request his deportation to face charges.

Purkiss served formerly as a army medic with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the infantry regiment for the English northwest, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, twenty-one, a hair stylist who had a baby daughter, went missing after a night out, and her corpse was found two months later in the grounds of the hotel where she had last been seen.

No one had previously been arrested or indicted in association with her death. The arrest of Purkiss came after a new police inquiry, which followed a exposé in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the publication reached out to several serving and ex-military personnel in the unit.

This inquiry has been spearheaded by Kenyan detectives, which, under a bilateral security treaty, retains jurisdiction in the matter.