Ex British Soldier Charged of Killing Kenya Woman Shows Up in Courtroom

An individual has appeared in court as extradition proceedings began in the investigation of Agnes Wanjiru, a woman of Kenyan origin who was murdered near a UK military installation in 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, 38, who is hailing from the Manchester area, showed up in the Westminster court on Friday, and told the court he intended to contest the extradition. Sources suggest that he was taken into custody on the evening of Thursday.

A warrant for arrest for the suspect was authorized by a court in Nairobi in the month of September. The prosecution stated before the Kenyan court that the accused had been charged with a single count, of homicide, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to answer to accusations.

Purkiss served formerly as a medic with the Lancaster Regiment, the infantry regiment for the English northwest, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, twenty-one, a hairdresser who had a infant daughter, vanished after a night on the town, and her remains was discovered two months later in the premises of the lodging where she had last been seen.

Not a single person had previously been taken into custody or charged in association with her demise. Purkiss’s arrest came after a new police inquiry, which came after a article in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the media outlet approached several serving and ex-military personnel in the regiment.

The probe has been headed by detectives in Kenya, which, under a bilateral security treaty, holds legal authority in the matter.