Ex UK Serviceman Accused of Murdering Kenyan Female Appears in Court

A suspect has shown up before a judge as extradition proceedings started in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a woman of Kenyan origin who was murdered near a British army base in 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, 38 years old, who is originally from Greater Manchester, showed up in Westminster magistrates court on the last Friday, and informed the court he planned to fight the extradition request. Reports indicate that he was detained on Thursday night.

A warrant for arrest for the suspect was authorized by a court in Nairobi in the month of September. The prosecution told the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been accused of a single count, of homicide, and that the Kenyan authorities would seek his extradition to answer to accusations.

Purkiss was once employed as a medical attendant with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the army unit for the English northwest, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

The victim, 21, a beautician who had a infant daughter, went missing after a night on the town, and her body was found 60 days later in the grounds of the accommodation where she had most recently observed.

Nobody had before been detained or accused in association with her death. Purkiss’s arrest followed a new police inquiry, which followed a exposé in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the newspaper reached out to several current and former soldiers in the military group.

The investigation has been spearheaded by detectives in Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, maintains prosecutorial power in the legal case.