Former British Serviceman Accused of Killing Kenya Female Appears in Court

An individual has appeared in court as extradition proceedings commenced in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a Kenyan woman who was murdered near a British army base in 2012.

Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is originally from Greater Manchester, was presented at the Westminster court on Friday, and told the court he planned to fight the extradition request. It is understood that he was detained on Thursday night.

An arrest warrant for the suspect was released by a court in Nairobi in September. Legal prosecutors stated before the Kenyan court that the individual had been facing a sole charge, of murder, and that the government of Kenya would seek his extradition to answer to accusations.

Purkiss was once employed as a medic with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the army unit for the English northwest, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, 21 years old, a beautician who had a baby daughter, went missing after a evening out, and her body was located two months later in the area of the hotel where she had most recently observed.

Nobody had previously been taken into custody or charged in relation to her death. Purkiss’s arrest came after a new police inquiry, which followed a article in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the newspaper contacted several active and retired troops in the military group.

The investigation has been spearheaded by investigators from Kenya, which, under a bilateral security treaty, maintains prosecutorial power in the matter.