Former UK Serviceman Charged of Killing Kenya Woman Appears in Court

A suspect has been presented in court as extradition proceedings began in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a female from Kenya who was murdered near a British army base in 2012.

Robert Purkiss, 38, who is hailing from Greater Manchester region, showed up in the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and informed the court he planned to fight the deportation. Sources suggest that he was arrested on the evening of Thursday.

A detention order for Purkiss was released by a court in Nairobi in the month of September. The state attorneys told the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been facing a one count, of murder, and that the government of Kenya would request his deportation to face charges.

He was once employed as a medic with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the military regiment for the north-west of England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, 21, a beautician who had a baby daughter, went missing after a evening out, and her remains was located two months later in the area of the accommodation where she had previously spotted.

Not a single person had previously been taken into custody or accused in association with her death. Purkiss’s arrest was the result of a recent detective probe, which was initiated after a article in the year 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the newspaper approached several serving and ex-military personnel in the military group.

The probe has been led by Kenyan detectives, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, holds legal authority in the matter.