Former UK Serviceman Charged of Killing Kenyan Woman Appears in Court

A man has been presented in court as extradition hearings started in the investigation of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a Kenyan woman who was murdered near a UK military installation in 2012.

Robert Purkiss, 38, who is a native of Greater Manchester region, was presented at the Westminster court on the last Friday, and informed the court he would challenge the deportation. Reports indicate that he was taken into custody on Thursday evening.

A warrant for arrest for the suspect was released by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. The state attorneys informed the Kenyan judiciary that Purkiss had been facing a one count, of homicide, and that the Kenyan government would pursue his extradition to stand trial.

The defendant previously worked as a medical attendant with the Lancaster Regiment, the military regiment for the north-west of England, including on missions to Afghanistan.

The victim, 21 years old, a hairdresser who had a baby daughter, disappeared after a night out, and her remains was found 60 days later in the premises of the lodging where she had previously spotted.

Nobody had before been detained or accused in connection to her death. His detention was the result of a fresh police investigation, which followed a report in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the publication approached several active and retired troops in the regiment.

The probe has been spearheaded by Kenyan detectives, which, under a bilateral security treaty, retains jurisdiction in the legal case.