By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A former British soldier wanted in Kenyan on Friday appeared before a London court as his extradition proceedings began after he was arrested in connection with the alleged murder of a woman near a UK army training camp in the East African country in 2012.
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.
Robert Purkiss, 38, who is originally from Greater Manchester told the court he intended to contest the extradition to Kenya.
He was arrested on Thursday night in Tidworth in Wiltshire by specialist officers from the National Crime Agency’s national extradition unit. An arrest warrant for Purkiss was issued by a court in Nairobi in September.
Purkiss served as a medic with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, the infantry regiment for the north-west of England, including on tours of Afghanistan.
Wanjiru, 21, a hairdresser who had a baby daughter, vanished after a night out in 2012, and her body was found two months later in the grounds of the hotel, in a septic tank where she had been thrown into.
Joel Smith KC, appearing on behalf of the Home Office, told the court: “Soldiers in the British army … were in Nanyuki, Kenya on a six-week training exercise. The defendant was amongst those soldiers. “There is evidence that when the soldiers were given time off, they would go into town, drink heavily, and they would pay local women for sex.”
Smith said some of the soldiers left their base and went drinking in the town on the night of 31 March. “They were drinking heavily. Many of them, including this defendant, ended up in the Lions Court hotel,” he said.
Smith told the court: “Some soldiers had booked rooms or cottages in the hotel grounds,” and that Waniju and two friends had also gone out that night, ending up at the hotel where they met soldiers.
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 prosecution of British soldiers training in Kenya.
Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said the suspect was remanded into custody until his next appearance at the same court on November 14.
