Ex UK Soldier Charged of Killing Kenyan Female Shows Up in Courtroom

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

Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is a native of the Manchester area, was presented at the Westminster court on the last Friday, and told the court he intended to contest the extradition. Reports indicate that he was detained on Thursday evening.

A detention order for the defendant was released by a Nairobi court in the month of September. Legal prosecutors stated before the Kenyan court that Purkiss had been facing a single count, of homicide, and that the government of Kenya would request his deportation to answer to accusations.

He was once employed as a medic with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the army unit for the northwestern England, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Agnes Wanjiru, 21 years old, a hairdresser who had a baby daughter, went missing after a night out, and her body was discovered two months later in the grounds of the hotel where she had previously spotted.

No one had earlier been detained or accused in association with her death. His detention followed a recent detective probe, which came after a exposé in the year 2021 by a weekly publication, in which the media outlet reached out to several serving and ex-military personnel in the unit.

The investigation has been led by investigators from Kenya, which, under a bilateral defence agreement, retains jurisdiction in the matter.