Ex UK Serviceman Accused of Killing Kenya Female Appears in Court

A man has appeared in court as deportation processes commenced in the investigation of Agnes Wanjiru, a woman of Kenyan origin who was murdered near a British army base in the year 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is originally from the Manchester area, showed up in the Westminster court on Friday, and informed the court he planned to fight the extradition request. It is understood that he was taken into custody on Thursday evening.

A detention order for the defendant was authorized by a Nairobi court in the month of September. The state attorneys stated before the Kenyan court that the individual had been charged with a single count, of murder, and that the government of Kenya would request his deportation to answer to accusations.

The defendant was once employed as a army medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the army unit for the north-west of England, including on tours of Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, 21 years old, a beautician who had a baby daughter, vanished after a night out, and her body was found two months later in the premises of the hotel where she had previously spotted.

Not a single person had earlier been taken into custody or indicted in association with her passing. Purkiss’s arrest was the result of a new police inquiry, which followed a exposé in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the publication reached out to several active and retired troops in the military group.

This inquiry has been led by investigators from Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, holds legal authority in the case.