Former UK Soldier Charged of Killing Kenya Female Shows Up in Courtroom

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

Robert Purkiss, 38 years old, who is a native of the Manchester area, appeared before the Westminster court on Friday, and told the court he would challenge the extradition. It is understood that he was detained on Thursday evening.

An arrest warrant for Purkiss was released by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. Legal prosecutors told the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been facing a single count, of murder, and that the government of Kenya would request his deportation to stand trial.

The defendant previously worked as a army medic with the Lancaster Regiment, the army unit for the English northwest, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21, a hairdresser who had a baby daughter, went missing after a night out, and her corpse was found 60 days later in the area of the lodging where she had most recently observed.

No one had earlier been arrested or accused in connection to her passing. Purkiss’s arrest came after a new police inquiry, which followed a article in the year 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the media outlet approached several current and former soldiers in the regiment.

The probe has been headed by detectives in Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, maintains prosecutorial power in the matter.