Former British Serviceman Accused of Murdering Kenya Female Appears in Courtroom

A suspect has shown up before a judge as extradition hearings began in the legal matter of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan national, a female from Kenya who was killed near a British forces camp in 2012.

Purkiss, thirty-eight, who is originally from the Manchester area, was presented at the Westminster court on Friday, and told the court he would challenge the extradition request. It is understood that he was detained on Thursday evening.

An arrest warrant for Purkiss was issued by a Kenyan court in Nairobi in September. The state attorneys informed the Kenyan judiciary that the accused had been accused of a sole charge, of killing, and that the government of Kenya would pursue his extradition to answer to accusations.

Purkiss served formerly as a medic with the regiment of the Duke of Lancaster, the infantry regiment for the English northwest, including on missions to Afghanistan.

Wanjiru, 21 years old, a beautician who had a baby daughter, disappeared after a evening out, and her body was found 60 days later in the area of the hotel where she had last been seen.

No one had before been taken into custody or charged in connection to her demise. The arrest of Purkiss followed a new police inquiry, which was initiated after a article in 2021 by a Sunday newspaper, in which the publication contacted several current and former soldiers in the regiment.

The probe has been spearheaded by detectives in Kenya, which, under a mutual defense pact, retains jurisdiction in the case.