Ex UK Serviceman Accused of Killing Kenyan Woman Shows Up in Courtroom

A man has shown up before a judge as deportation processes started in the case of the victim Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan woman who was murdered near a British army base in 2012.

The accused Robert Purkiss, 38 years old, who is a native of the Manchester area, was presented at the magistrates' court in Westminster on Friday, and informed the court he intended to contest the extradition. It is understood that he was arrested on the evening of Thursday.

A detention order for the suspect was issued by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. The state attorneys stated before the Kenyan court that the accused had been accused of a single count, of killing, and that the Kenyan government would request his deportation to answer to accusations.

Purkiss previously worked as a army medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the army unit for the English northwest, including on deployments in Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, twenty-one, a beautician who had a infant daughter, went missing after a night out, and her remains was found two months later in the premises of the lodging where she had most recently observed.

No one had previously been arrested or charged in connection to her passing. Purkiss’s arrest followed a new police inquiry, which followed a exposé in 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the newspaper approached several serving and ex-military personnel in the unit.

This inquiry has been led by detectives in Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, maintains prosecutorial power in the matter.