Nanyuki: More than a decade after Agnes Wanjiru, a 21-year-old mother, was killed in Kenya, allegedly by a British soldier, a Kenyan court has issued an arrest warrant for a UK national. If there is an extradition, it would be the first time a serving or former British soldier is sent abroad to face trial for the murder of a civilian – a move her friends would welcome.
According to BBC, on the night Agnes went missing on 31 March 2012, she had asked her childhood friends, referred to as Friend A and Friend B, to join her for an evening out. Both Agnes and Friend A, who were new mothers at the time, were eager for a brief respite. The British Army maintains a permanent training support base in Nanyuki, and interactions with white men, many of whom were soldiers, were not uncommon. These men were often referred to by locals as Johnnies, a term with negative connotations.
Friend A expressed discomfort around these men, citing negative perceptions of muzungu, or white men, while Friend B added that Johnnies were known for mistreating Kenyan women. Despite the risks associated with engaging with these men, financial desperation often forced young women like Agnes to take such chances. Agnes, who did not receive financial support from the father of her child, worked primarily in salons and braided hair to make ends meet, occasionally resorting to unconventional methods for survival.
Friend A recalled that on the night of her disappearance, Agnes was involved in a tense exchange with a white man at Sherlocks bar but seemed to resolve the matter and later joined her friends at Lions Court hotel. Friend B mentioned seeing Agnes leave the bar with a white man, assuming it was a consensual arrangement.
The following day, when Agnes did not return home, her friends and family reported her missing. Months later, her body was discovered in a septic tank near the hotel, having been stabbed. A 2019 inquest by Kenyan judge Njeri Thuku concluded that British soldiers were responsible for her murder. Reports by The Sunday Times revealed that the soldier implicated continued to live freely in the UK.
Open Democracy reignited attention on the case in 2024, reporting the British Army’s failure to discipline soldiers for paying for sex, despite a ban in 2022 following the allegations in Kenya. In April this year, UK Defence Secretary John Healey met Agnes’s family in Kenya, pledging support for their quest for justice. The arrest warrant issued on 16 September by a Kenyan High Court marks a significant step toward that goal.
Kelvin Kubai, a lawyer at the African Centre for Corrective and Preventive Action, described the warrant as a positive step but emphasized the challenges of extradition proceedings. Agness niece, Esther Njoki, has started a GoFundMe campaign to support the family and raise awareness about her aunt’s murder, underlining the need for financial security for Agnes’s daughter, now a teenager.
Agnes’s friends and family continue to call for justice, urging the British Army to acknowledge the crime. A UK government spokesman reiterated their commitment to helping secure justice but declined further comment due to ongoing legal proceedings.
