Ex British Soldier Charged of Killing Kenya Female Appears in Courtroom

A suspect has been presented in court as deportation processes started in the investigation of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a female from Kenya who was murdered near a UK military installation in 2012.

Purkiss, 38, who is a native of Greater Manchester region, showed up in the magistrates' court in Westminster on the last Friday, and told the court he planned to fight the extradition. It is understood that he was taken into custody on Thursday evening.

A detention order for the suspect was released by a court in Nairobi in the month of September. The state attorneys told the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been charged with a sole charge, of murder, and that the Kenyan authorities would seek his extradition to answer to accusations.

Purkiss previously worked as a medical attendant with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the army unit for the north-west of England, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, 21 years old, a hairdresser who had a young daughter, vanished after a evening out, and her body was found two months later in the grounds of the lodging where she had most recently observed.

Nobody had before been taken into custody or indicted in connection to her passing. His detention was the result of a fresh police investigation, which followed a article in 2021 by the Sunday Times, in which the media outlet contacted several current and former soldiers in the military group.

This inquiry has been spearheaded by Kenyan detectives, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, maintains prosecutorial power in the legal case.