Family of Kenyan Woman Allegedly Murdered by British Soldier Take Legal Action Against UK MoD
07:31 GMT 08.11.2021 (Updated: 15:16 GMT 28.05.2023)
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UK armed forces minister James Heappey, while on a visit to the African country, has pledged to "leave no stone unturned" and fully support Kenyan police who have reopen the case of a woman allegedly killed by a British soldier nine years ago.
The family of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan woman believed to have been murdered by a British soldier in 2012 near an army base in Kenya, are taking legal action against the UK Ministry of Defence, reported Sky News.
Relatives of the young woman, whose naked body was discovered at the Lions Court Inn in Nanyuki, some 122 miles (196 km) north of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, two months after she went missing, have instructed British legal firm Leigh Day to represent them. Agnes Wanjiru’s family has been demanding a judicial review in the High Court to explain why the death of the mother of a five-month-old daughter has never been investigated in the UK.
"It just seems extraordinary that there are clear allegations that appear to have been well known that a 21-year-old woman in Kenya was brutally murdered by a British soldier whilst they were training in Kenya. And yet the family have no answers at all and the Royal Military Police here do not appear to have done a full investigation into the circumstances of the death,” Tessa Gregory, a partner at Leigh Day, was cited as saying.
The body of Agnes Wanjiru, a sex worker, had been found in Nanyuki when a maintenance worker noticed a smell coming from a septic tank at the Lions Court Inn. The town is close to the British Training Unit Kenya, known as BATUK, where the UK sends six infantry battalions annually for eight-week exercises.
If you are unfamiliar with this story, here is the first part of our investigation, which we published four weeks ago.
— Hannah Al-Othman (@HannahAlOthman) October 23, 2021
We spoke to Agnes Wanjiru’s family, who were desperately seeking answers to their questions about how she died:https://t.co/e9j5DvjLiw
A post-mortem examination revealed the woman died of stab wounds to her chest and abdomen. A Kenyan police investigation in 2012 heard witnesses say that Agnes had been seen leaving a bar with a British soldier. Kenyan police in June 2012 sent a request to the British Royal Military Police (RMP) seeking the questioning of the nine soldiers who had checked in at the inn on the day that Agnes was seen by witnesses, and checked out the following one. However, the request appeared to have gone missing, according to a previous report in The Sunday Times.
A Kenyan investigation after an inquest in 2019 came to the conclusion that Wanjiru “was murdered by British soldiers”.
“We have written to the Ministry of Defence to notify them that we're instructed to ask for all the details of the investigations they've carried out. What we want is for a proper independent investigation to be carried out into both the circumstances of Agnes' death and also how it is that nine years later, nothing has been done to address this," said Tessa Gregory.
In response to the report, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence was quoted as saying:
"The jurisdiction for this investigation rests with the Kenyan police who we continue to work with on a daily basis to provide all possible support. This remains an active investigation with multiple lines of enquiry. In order to protect the investigation, and in the interests of justice we cannot comment further."
‘Cold Case’ Reopened
The murder case of Agnes Wanjiru seemed to have gone cold until it was thrown into the spotlight by a report in The Sunday Times last month. It was claimed that a British soldier had allegedly confessed to killing the 21-year old Wanjiru and showed his comrades where he dumped her body. However, the crime was said to have been dismissed by military officials, with the purported perpetrator later flown back home.
On 2 November Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces, James Heappey, on a visit to the country, said that while legal jurisdiction lies with the government of Kenya, where the murder of Agnes Wanjiru was committed, he would "leave no stone unturned" and fully support Kenyan police.
“I am not immediately clear right now on the arrangements for extradition between the UK and Kenya, but absolutely everybody in the UK government is aware of how Agnes’s case has affected the Kenyan public, and we want you to know that we take that very seriously and we want justice to be done for her,” he said.
CS Defence Hon @EugeneLWamalwa today, 02 November 2021 hosted UK Minister for Armed Forces Mr. James Heappey at the Defence Headquarters in Nairobi and discussed the ongoing Defence cooperation between the two countries. https://t.co/8uFic0GcvT pic.twitter.com/680JEDGZ7i
— Kenya Defence Forces (@kdfinfo) November 2, 2021
The minister insisted that the UK had “nothing to hide.” “We want those responsible to be brought to justice because Agnes and her family have already had to wait too long,” said Heappey.
The UK minister for armed forces James Heappey says Kenya and
— KTN News (@KTNNewsKE) November 3, 2021
UK had a part to play in the delay of Agnes Wanjiru's murder inquest, but now investigations will be swift and no stone will remain unturned. #NewsHour @KenMijungu pic.twitter.com/GRGfLYBQBY
His remarks came against the backdrop of calls for justice in the woman’s native town of Nanyuki, especially after recent reports that the implicated soldiers joked about the murder, according to Facebook records.
Meanwhile, Members of Parliament were also reported by Capital FM Kenya as contemplating scrapping a defence cooperation agreement between their country and the United Kingdom that was signed in June by President Uhuru Kenyatta and UK’s Prime Minster Boris Johnson. The legislators in the National Assembly Defence committee said that the military agreement will not be ratified until the alleged British culprits in the murder of Agnes Wanjiru are prosecuted under the Kenyan laws.
Defense Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa was cited as saying that the government was working on invoking provisions of the defence cooperation agreement with the UK side to prosecute the soldiers involved.
“There is no such cover up, there might have been delays and that we own up. Indeed, justice has been delayed for Agnes Wanjiru but we must do all we can to ensure that justice is served,” he said.
