Former UK Serviceman Accused of Murdering Kenyan Female Appears in Courtroom

A suspect has shown up before a judge as extradition proceedings began in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a Kenyan woman who was found dead near a British army base in 2012.

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

A warrant for arrest for Purkiss was authorized by a court in Nairobi in the month of September. The state attorneys informed the Kenyan judiciary that the accused had been charged with a single count, of murder, and that the government of Kenya would seek his extradition to stand trial.

Purkiss served formerly as a army medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the military regiment for the northwestern England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

The victim, 21, a hairdresser who had a young daughter, disappeared after a night out, and her remains was discovered two months later in the premises of the lodging where she had previously spotted.

Not a single person had earlier been arrested or accused in connection to her death. Purkiss’s arrest followed a new police inquiry, which followed a article in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the newspaper contacted several active and retired troops in the regiment.

The probe has been spearheaded by detectives in Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, retains jurisdiction in the matter.