Ex British Serviceman Charged of Killing Kenya Woman Shows Up in Court

An individual has been presented in court as extradition hearings started in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a woman of Kenyan origin who was found dead near a UK military installation in 2012.

Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is a native of Greater Manchester, was presented at the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and stated to the court he would challenge the extradition request. Reports indicate that he was taken into custody on Thursday night.

An arrest warrant for Purkiss was authorized by a court in Nairobi in the month of September. Legal prosecutors informed the Kenyan judiciary that the accused had been facing a one count, of homicide, and that the government of Kenya would seek his extradition to stand trial.

He was once employed as a army medic with the Lancaster Regiment, the infantry regiment for the north-west of England, including on tours of Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21 years old, a hair stylist who had a baby daughter, went missing after a night out, and her remains was found 60 days later in the area of the lodging where she had last been seen.

No one had earlier been taken into custody or indicted in association with her death. Purkiss’s arrest was the result of a fresh police investigation, which came after a report in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the newspaper contacted several current and former soldiers in the military group.

The probe has been led by investigators from Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, maintains prosecutorial power in the matter.