Former UK Soldier Charged of Killing Kenyan Woman Appears in Court

A man has been presented in court as extradition hearings began in the case of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a woman of Kenyan origin who was killed near a British forces camp in the year 2012.

Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is hailing from Greater Manchester, was presented at the Westminster court on the last Friday, and informed the court he would challenge the deportation. Sources suggest that he was detained on the evening of Thursday.

A warrant for arrest for the suspect was issued by a Nairobi court in September. The state attorneys informed the Kenyan judiciary that the individual had been facing a single count, of murder, and that the Kenyan authorities would seek his extradition to stand trial.

Purkiss served formerly as a army medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the military regiment for the north-west of England, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, twenty-one, a hairdresser who had a young daughter, went missing after a night out, and her remains was located 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. His detention came after a new police inquiry, which came after a exposé in the year 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the newspaper reached out to several serving and ex-military personnel in the military group.

The investigation has been headed by investigators from Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, retains jurisdiction in the matter.