Former British Serviceman Accused of Killing Kenyan Female Appears in Court

An individual has appeared in court as deportation processes commenced in the investigation of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a woman of Kenyan origin who was murdered near a British forces camp in 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, 38, who is hailing from the Manchester area, showed up in the Westminster court on Friday, and told the court he planned to fight the deportation. Reports indicate that he was taken into custody on Thursday evening.

An arrest warrant for the defendant was authorized by a Nairobi court in the month of September. Legal prosecutors told the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been charged with a sole charge, of murder, and that the Kenyan government would pursue his extradition to answer to accusations.

The defendant previously worked as a medical attendant with the Lancaster Regiment, the infantry regiment for the north-west of England, including on tours of Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, twenty-one, a hair stylist who had a baby daughter, disappeared after a night out, and her body was located two months later in the grounds of the accommodation where she had last been seen.

Not a single person had earlier been arrested or charged in connection to her death. Purkiss’s arrest followed a new police inquiry, which was initiated after a report in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the media outlet reached out to several current and former soldiers in the regiment.

The probe has been led by investigators from Kenya, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, holds legal authority in the case.