Former British Serviceman Accused of Killing Kenya Woman Shows Up in Court

An individual has appeared in court as extradition proceedings commenced in the investigation of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a Kenyan woman who was murdered near a British army base in 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is a native of the Manchester area, showed up in the Westminster court on Friday, and told the court he planned to fight the extradition request. It is understood that he was detained on the evening of Thursday.

A warrant for arrest for the suspect was authorized by a Nairobi court in the month of September. The prosecution told the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been accused of a one count, of homicide, and that the government of Kenya would request his deportation to stand trial.

Purkiss served formerly as a medical attendant with the Lancaster Regiment, the military regiment for the English northwest, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21, a hair stylist who had a infant daughter, vanished after a night out, and her body was found 60 days later in the premises of the hotel where she had previously spotted.

No one had earlier been taken into custody or indicted in relation to her death. The arrest of Purkiss was the result of a new police inquiry, which came after a exposé in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the newspaper contacted several serving and ex-military personnel in the regiment.

The investigation has been spearheaded by investigators from Kenya, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, maintains prosecutorial power in the legal case.