Ex UK Soldier Accused of Killing Kenyan Woman Shows Up in Court

A man has appeared in court as extradition hearings started in the case of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan woman who was found dead near a UK military installation in 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, 38 years old, who is a native of Greater Manchester, showed up in the Westminster court on Friday, and stated to the court he intended to contest the deportation. Sources suggest that he was arrested on Thursday night.

A warrant for arrest for Purkiss was authorized by a court in Nairobi in September. Legal prosecutors told the Kenyan court that the individual had been charged with a single count, of homicide, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to stand trial.

The defendant was once employed as a medic with the Lancaster Regiment, the military regiment for the English northwest, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21 years old, a hairdresser who had a infant daughter, went missing after a night on the town, and her body was discovered 60 days later in the area of the lodging where she had last been seen.

No one had before been taken into custody or charged in association with her passing. The arrest of Purkiss was the result of a fresh police investigation, which was initiated after a article in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the media outlet contacted several active and retired troops in the unit.

The investigation has been spearheaded by investigators from Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, retains jurisdiction in the legal case.