Ex UK Soldier Accused of Murdering Kenyan Female Appears in Court

A man has been presented in court as extradition hearings started in the case of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan woman who was killed near a British forces camp in 2012.

Robert Purkiss, 38, who is originally from Greater Manchester, was presented at the Westminster court on the last Friday, and informed the court he planned to fight the extradition. Sources suggest that he was detained on Thursday evening.

A warrant for arrest for Purkiss was authorized by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. The prosecution stated before the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been accused of a single count, of killing, and that the Kenyan authorities would request his deportation to answer to accusations.

He previously worked as a army medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the army unit for the north-west of England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21 years old, a hair stylist who had a young daughter, disappeared after a night on the town, and her body was found after two months in the area of the accommodation where she had last been seen.

Nobody had before been arrested or accused in relation to her death. Purkiss’s arrest was the result of a recent detective probe, which came after a report in the year 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the media outlet contacted several current and former soldiers in the military group.

This inquiry has been spearheaded by Kenyan detectives, which, under a mutual defense pact, maintains prosecutorial power in the legal case.