Former UK Soldier Accused of Murdering Kenyan Woman Appears in Court

An individual has been presented in court as extradition hearings began in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a Kenyan woman who was killed near a British army base in the year 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is originally from Greater Manchester region, showed up in the Westminster court on Friday, and informed the court he planned to fight the deportation. Reports indicate that he was arrested on Thursday evening.

A warrant for arrest for Purkiss was issued by a court in Nairobi in the month of September. Legal prosecutors informed the Kenyan judiciary that the individual had been accused of a one count, of homicide, and that the government of Kenya would request his deportation to answer to accusations.

Purkiss served formerly as a medical attendant with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the infantry regiment for the north-west of England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, twenty-one, a hair stylist who had a baby daughter, went missing after a evening out, and her remains was located after two months in the area of the lodging where she had previously spotted.

Not a single person had previously been taken into custody or accused in connection to her death. The arrest of Purkiss came after a recent detective probe, which followed a exposé in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the media outlet reached out to several serving and ex-military personnel in the unit.

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