Ex British Soldier Charged of Killing Kenya Female Shows Up in Court

A man has appeared in court as deportation processes started in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a female from Kenya who was murdered near a British army base in the year 2012.

Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is hailing from Greater Manchester region, was presented at the magistrates' court in Westminster on the last Friday, and stated to the court he planned to fight the extradition. Reports indicate that he was detained on Thursday night.

An arrest warrant for the suspect was authorized by a court in Nairobi in September. The state attorneys informed the Kenyan judiciary that the individual had been facing a one count, of homicide, and that the Kenyan government would seek his extradition to face charges.

The defendant served formerly as a army medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the army unit for the English northwest, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21, a hairdresser who had a young daughter, went missing after a evening out, and her body was located two months later in the grounds of the lodging where she had previously spotted.

Nobody had before been detained or charged in relation to her death. The arrest of Purkiss was the result of a new police inquiry, which came after a report in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the media outlet approached several current and former soldiers in the regiment.

The probe has been led by Kenyan detectives, which, under a bilateral security treaty, maintains prosecutorial power in the legal case.