Former British Serviceman Accused of Killing Kenyan Female Shows Up in Court

An individual has shown up before a judge as extradition proceedings started in the case of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan woman who was found dead near a British forces camp in the year 2012.

Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is a native of the Manchester area, showed up in the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and informed the court he planned to fight the extradition request. It is understood that he was taken into custody on Thursday night.

An arrest warrant for the defendant was released by a court in Nairobi in the month of September. The state attorneys told the Kenyan court that the individual had been facing a single count, of murder, and that the government of Kenya would pursue his extradition to face charges.

The defendant previously worked as a medic with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the military regiment for the English northwest, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, 21 years old, a hairdresser who had a baby daughter, went missing after a night on the town, and her corpse was discovered after two months in the grounds of the accommodation where she had last been seen.

No one had before been arrested or indicted in association with her passing. Purkiss’s arrest followed a new police inquiry, which was initiated after a article in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the publication contacted several serving and ex-military personnel in the regiment.

The probe has been spearheaded by detectives in Kenya, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, maintains prosecutorial power in the matter.