Former UK Serviceman Charged of Murdering Kenyan Female Appears in Court

A man has shown up before a judge as extradition proceedings started in the case of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a female from Kenya who was murdered near a British army base in 2012.

Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is hailing from Greater Manchester, was presented at the magistrates' court in Westminster on the last Friday, and told the court he planned to fight the deportation. Reports indicate that he was detained on the evening of Thursday.

A warrant for arrest for Purkiss was issued by a Nairobi court in the month of September. The state attorneys stated before the Kenyan court that the individual had been accused of a one count, of homicide, and that the government of Kenya would pursue his extradition to answer to accusations.

He previously worked as a medical attendant with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the infantry regiment for the northwestern England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21, a hairdresser who had a baby daughter, disappeared after a night on the town, and her corpse was found two months later in the area of the lodging where she had last been seen.

No one had earlier been taken into custody or accused in relation to her death. Purkiss’s arrest came after a fresh police investigation, which was initiated after a exposé in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the publication contacted several current and former soldiers in the unit.

This inquiry has been headed by Kenyan detectives, which, under a bilateral security treaty, holds legal authority in the case.