Former UK Soldier Charged of Murdering Kenya Female Shows Up in Court

A suspect has appeared in court as extradition hearings commenced in the investigation of the victim 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 Westminster court on the last Friday, and informed the court he intended to contest the extradition request. Sources suggest that he was taken into custody on Thursday evening.

A warrant for arrest for Purkiss was issued by a court in Nairobi in the month of September. The state attorneys told the Kenyan court that the individual had been facing a one count, of homicide, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to answer to accusations.

The defendant served formerly as a army medic with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the military regiment for the northwestern England, including on tours of Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, twenty-one, a hairdresser who had a young daughter, vanished after a night on the town, and her body was found 60 days later in the area of the hotel where she had last been seen.

Nobody had before been taken into custody or charged in relation to her demise. Purkiss’s arrest was the result of a fresh police investigation, which followed a exposé in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the media outlet approached several serving and ex-military personnel in the unit.

This inquiry has been led by investigators from Kenya, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, holds legal authority in the matter.