Ex UK Soldier Charged of Murdering Kenya Woman Shows Up in Court

An individual has appeared in court as deportation processes commenced in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a woman of Kenyan origin who was murdered near a UK military installation in 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is hailing from the Manchester area, showed up in the Westminster court on the last Friday, and stated to the court he planned to fight the extradition. It is understood that he was arrested on Thursday night.

A detention order for the defendant was released by a Nairobi court in September. The prosecution informed the Kenyan judiciary that the accused had been accused of a sole charge, of homicide, and that the Kenyan government would seek his extradition to face charges.

Purkiss served formerly as a medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the infantry regiment for the north-west of England, including on tours of Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, twenty-one, a beautician who had a infant daughter, went missing after a night out, and her body was found after two months in the area of the lodging where she had previously spotted.

Not a single person had earlier been detained or indicted in association with her death. His detention followed a fresh police investigation, which came after a exposé in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the publication approached several serving and ex-military personnel in the military group.

This inquiry has been spearheaded by Kenyan detectives, which, under a mutual defense pact, holds legal authority in the matter.