Former British Serviceman Charged of Killing Kenya Woman Appears in Court

An individual has shown up before a judge as extradition proceedings began in the investigation of Agnes Wanjiru, a female from Kenya who was found dead near a British army base in the year 2012.

Robert Purkiss, 38 years old, who is originally from the Manchester area, showed up in the magistrates' court in Westminster on the last Friday, and informed the court he intended to contest the extradition request. Sources suggest that he was detained on Thursday night.

An arrest warrant for the suspect was issued by a Nairobi court in September. The state attorneys told the Kenyan court that the individual had been facing a one count, of murder, and that the Kenyan government would pursue his extradition to answer to accusations.

He served formerly as a medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the infantry regiment for the northwestern England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

The victim, twenty-one, a beautician who had a baby daughter, vanished after a evening out, and her corpse was found after two months in the grounds of the accommodation where she had last been seen.

Not a single person had before been taken into custody or accused in relation to her passing. The arrest of Purkiss came after a new police inquiry, which was initiated after a exposé in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the newspaper approached several current and former soldiers in the regiment.

This inquiry has been headed by detectives in Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, maintains prosecutorial power in the matter.