The High Court has set December 16 for the next mention in the murder case of Agnes Wanjiru after confirmation that the main suspect, former British soldier Robert James Purkiss, is now in the custody of UK authorities.
The move comes as part of ongoing extradition procedures to bring him to Kenya.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) informed the court that Purkiss is being held in the United Kingdom and that the British courts have scheduled case management hearings for December 9 to advance the extradition process.
“We have received updated communication that the suspect is being held by UK authorities. The UK courts will be handling case management on December 9, and we request a mention date after that,” the prosecution told the court.
High Court judge Alexander Muteti accepted the request and set December 16 as the next mention. The ODPP is expected to brief the court on the outcome of the UK proceedings and outline the next steps in ensuring Purkiss’s return to Kenya.
Agnes Wanjiru’s family expressed relief at the progress, acknowledging the cooperation between Kenya and the UK.
“We appreciate the work being done by both the Kenyan and UK governments in this matter,” the family said, while noting that extradition is often a slow and formal process requiring patience.
Purkiss, who denies any involvement in Wanjiru’s death, insists he never met her. He is accused of killing her in Nanyuki in 2012 and is currently detained at a London remand prison after being denied bail while contesting the extradition request.
"I did not kill Agnes Wanjiru. I do not believe I ever met her either. Neither would I joke about killing a woman; that conversation has no basis in reality. I only heard about the incident weeks later when I was on a military exercise in Canada. Only much later was I told a body had been found in a tank,” Purkiss told the British Daily Mail.
He also denied claims that he and Wanjiru shared a hotel room on the night she disappeared. Her body was later discovered in a septic tank at Lions Court Hotel in Nanyuki, where she had joined a group of British soldiers for an evening of drinking.
"I never booked the hotel room, and can't remember ever being in it. I think we were back in camp by midnight. I was a medic. I have treated people on the battlefield. Agnes was stabbed in the abdomen. She would have lost a lot of blood. If I had killed her and dumped her body, there would have been blood on my clothes and hands. There was none," he added.
Last month, Wanjiru’s niece, Esther Njoki, and the family lawyer Mbiu Kamau, travelled to London to advocate for Purkiss’s arrest and prosecution. During a four-day visit, they met UK Defence Secretary John Healy, who assured them of the UK government’s support for the pursuit of justice.
The visit followed a Kenyan court ruling in September ordering Purkiss’s extradition. Two weeks later, he was arrested in the UK and extradition proceedings were initiated, a development that gave the Wanjiru family renewed hope that justice may soon be served.
