A former British soldier wanted by Kenyan authorities has appeared in a London court after being arrested in connection with the alleged murder of a woman near a UK army training camp in the East African country more than a decade ago.
In September, Kenya issued an arrest warrant and requested the extradition of a British citizen over the murder of 21-year-old Agnes Wanjiru near a UK army training camp in 2012, a case which has strained relations between the two countries.
Wanjiru was found in a septic tank at the Lion’s Court Hotel in the Kenyan town of Nanyuki in 2012, having last been seen at the hotel with a group of British soldiers.
A Kenyan magistrate concluded in an inquest in 2019 that she had been murdered by the soldiers, and in September, Kenya made a formal request to extradite a suspect.
The United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said the suspect was a former soldier who was arrested on Thursday by specialist officers after the warrant was issued.
“Robert James Purkiss, 38, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today for extradition proceedings to begin,” the NCA said on Friday.
“He was remanded into custody until his next appearance at the same court on November 14.”
The delay in securing justice has sparked outrage in Kenya, with Wanjiru’s family and rights groups arguing that the killers were being shielded by a defence cooperation agreement that complicates the prosecution of British soldiers training in Kenya.
Wanjiru, the single mother of a then four-month-old baby, was beaten and stabbed, and was probably still alive when she was thrown into the septic tank, a magistrate said in the 2019 inquest report.
Purkiss’s lawyer David Josse said that his client “vehemently denies” murder and that he has received funding from the UK’s Ministry of Defence to pay for his defence.
The case was a source of contention between Kenyan authorities and the UK’s previous Conservative government, and was in limbo for years.
Purkiss, a married father of two, told Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London that he did not consent to being extradited, the Press Association news agency reported.
The Labour party, which removed the Conservatives from power in a July election last year, has promised to support the Kenyan investigation and “secure a resolution to this case”.
Since Kenya gained independence in 1963, the UK has kept a permanent army base near Nanyuki, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the capital Nairobi.
The British Army Training Unit in Kenya is an economic lifeline for many in Nanyuki but has faced criticism over allegations of misconduct by its soldiers, as well as the maiming of civilians by unexploded ordnance.
