Former British Soldier Accused of Murdering Kenya Female Shows Up in Courtroom

A suspect has shown up before a judge as extradition hearings began in the case of Agnes Wanjiru, a female from Kenya who was found dead near a British army base in 2012.

Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is a native of the Manchester area, showed up in the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and told the court he would challenge the extradition request. It is understood that he was taken into custody on Thursday night.

An arrest warrant for Purkiss was issued by a court in Nairobi in the month of September. Legal prosecutors informed the Kenyan judiciary that Purkiss had been charged with a sole charge, of homicide, and that the Kenyan authorities would request his deportation to answer to accusations.

He served formerly as a medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the army unit for the English northwest, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, twenty-one, a beautician who had a infant daughter, disappeared after a night on the town, and her remains was found after two months in the grounds of the accommodation where she had most recently observed.

Nobody had before been taken into custody or charged in relation to her death. His detention came after a new police inquiry, which was initiated after a report in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the newspaper contacted several serving and ex-military personnel in the regiment.

The probe has been spearheaded by Kenyan detectives, which, under a bilateral security treaty, retains jurisdiction in the matter.