Ex UK Soldier Charged of Murdering Kenya Woman Appears in Courtroom

An individual 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 2012.

Robert Purkiss, 38 years old, who is originally from Greater Manchester, showed up in Westminster magistrates court on the last Friday, and stated to the court he would challenge the extradition. Sources suggest that he was detained on Thursday evening.

A detention order for the suspect was released by a Nairobi court in the month of September. Legal prosecutors told the Kenyan court that the accused had been accused of a one count, of killing, and that the government of Kenya would seek his extradition to stand trial.

He served formerly as a medical attendant with the Lancaster Regiment, the army unit for the north-west of England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

The victim, 21, a beautician who had a baby daughter, vanished after a night on the town, and her body was located 60 days later in the grounds of the hotel where she had most recently observed.

No one had previously been taken into custody or indicted in connection to her passing. The arrest of Purkiss came after a recent detective probe, which came after a exposé in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the publication reached out to several serving and ex-military personnel in the military group.

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