Former UK Serviceman Accused of Killing Kenyan Female Appears in Courtroom

An individual has appeared in court as extradition hearings started in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a female from Kenya who was found dead near a British army base in 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, 38, who is a native of Greater Manchester region, showed up in Westminster magistrates court on Friday, and stated to the court he planned to fight the extradition request. Reports indicate that he was taken into custody on the evening of Thursday.

An arrest warrant for Purkiss was released by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. The prosecution stated before the Kenyan court that the accused had been accused of a single count, of homicide, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to face charges.

He was once employed as a medic with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the army unit for the northwestern England, including on tours of Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21, a hair stylist who had a young daughter, disappeared after a evening out, and her body was located 60 days later in the grounds of the lodging where she had previously spotted.

No one had before been taken into custody or charged in association with her passing. The arrest of Purkiss came after a new police inquiry, which followed a article in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the publication contacted several current and former soldiers in the unit.

The investigation has been led by detectives in Kenya, which, under a bilateral security treaty, retains jurisdiction in the legal case.