A former British soldier wanted by Kenyan authorities appeared in a London court after being detained in connection with the alleged death of a woman near a UK army training camp over a decade ago.
In September, Kenya filed an arrest warrant and requested the extradition of Robert James Purkiss, 38, for the death of 21-year-old Agnes Wanjiru near a UK army training camp in 2012, a case that has strained relations between the two countries.
Wanjiru was discovered in a septic tank at the Lion’s Court Hotel in Nanyuki, Kenya, in 2012. He had last been seen alive there with a party of British soldiers.
In an inquiry in 2019, a Kenyan magistrate found that she had been murdered by troops, and Kenya formally requested the extradition of a suspect in September.
The suspect, a former soldier, was arrested on Thursday by specialist detectives, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA) in Britain.
“Robert James Purkiss, 38, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today for extradition proceedings to begin,” said the National Crime Agency.
He was remanded in detention until his next appearance in the same court on November 14.
The delay in obtaining justice has prompted uproar in Kenya, with Wanjiru’s family and rights groups claiming that the assassins were protected by a defence cooperation agreement that complicated the prosecution of British soldiers training in Kenya.
A magistrate stated in the 2019 inquest report that Wanjiru, the single mother of a four-month-old child at the time, was likely still alive when she was dumped into the septic tank after being battered and stabbed.
