Ex UK Serviceman Charged of Killing Kenyan Woman Appears in Court

An individual has appeared in court as extradition proceedings commenced in the case of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a Kenyan woman who was killed near a British forces camp in the year 2012.

Robert Purkiss, 38 years old, who is a native of the Manchester area, showed up in the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and stated to the court he planned to fight the deportation. It is understood that he was taken into custody on Thursday night.

A warrant for arrest for the defendant was released by a court in Nairobi in September. Legal prosecutors informed the Kenyan judiciary that the individual had been charged with a single count, of murder, and that the Kenyan government would seek his extradition to face charges.

He previously worked as a medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the military regiment for the northwestern England, including on tours of Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, twenty-one, a hair stylist who had a young daughter, went missing after a evening out, and her remains was discovered two months later in the grounds of the lodging where she had previously spotted.

Nobody had earlier been detained or indicted in connection to her death. The arrest of Purkiss came after a new police inquiry, which followed a article in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the publication approached several serving and ex-military personnel in the unit.

The investigation has been spearheaded by Kenyan detectives, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, retains jurisdiction in the case.