Ex British Soldier Accused of Murdering Kenya Woman Shows Up in Courtroom

A suspect has shown up before a judge as extradition hearings started in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a woman of Kenyan origin who was murdered near a British army base in 2012.

Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is originally from Greater Manchester region, was presented at the magistrates' court in Westminster on the last Friday, and told the court he would challenge the extradition. Sources suggest that he was taken into custody on Thursday night.

An arrest warrant for the suspect was issued by a Nairobi court in September. Legal prosecutors informed the Kenyan judiciary that Purkiss had been charged with a one count, of homicide, and that the Kenyan authorities would request his deportation to stand trial.

The defendant was once employed as a medical attendant with the Lancaster Regiment, the army unit for the north-west of England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, twenty-one, a hairdresser who had a infant daughter, went missing after a night on the town, and her body was found two months later in the premises of the accommodation where she had last been seen.

Not a single person had before been detained or indicted in association with her passing. The arrest of Purkiss came after a recent detective probe, which was initiated after a exposé in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the publication approached several current and former soldiers in the regiment.

The investigation has been led by Kenyan detectives, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, maintains prosecutorial power in the legal case.