Greater than a decade after Agnes Wanjiru, a 21-year-old mom, was killed in Kenya, allegedly by a British soldier, a Kenyan courtroom has issued an arrest warrant for a UK nationwide. If there’s an extradition, it could be the primary time a serving or former British soldier is distributed overseas to face trial for the homicide of a civilian – a transfer her associates would welcome.
On the night time she went lacking on 31 March 2012, Agnes begged her childhood associates Buddy A and Buddy B to come back out along with her.*
Agnes and Buddy A had been each new moms, each 21 years outdated, each desirous to let off some steam.
Buddy B was wanting to exit too, and agreed to satisfy them on the bar at Lions Court docket Lodge – positioned within the enterprise district of Nanyuki, a market city in central Kenya, round 124 miles (200km) north of Nairobi.
That night, Buddy B’s mom agreed to look at over Agnes’s five-month-old daughter for a small babysitting charge. With childcare settled, Agnes and Buddy A set off, making their first cease at a bar known as Sherlock’s.
“There have been a variety of muzungu (white) males there,” says Buddy A. “I keep in mind some had been in plain garments and a few had been in military garments.”
The British Military has a everlasting coaching help base in Nanyuki, and white males, a lot of them troopers, had been a well-known presence. Locals referred to them as Johnnies, a nickname that carries unsavoury connotations.
“They made me uncomfortable as a result of I would heard unhealthy issues about muzungu males,” Buddy A remembers.
“Muzungus do not deal with us Kenyan girls effectively,” provides Buddy B. “Johnnies, particularly, mistreat us. They disrespect us.”
For younger girls like Agnes, the dangers of partaking with these males had been typically weighed towards the battle to make ends meet.
“When girls are financially determined, they are going to do nearly something to outlive,” Buddy A says. “I do not consider Agnes was a intercourse employee although. I by no means noticed her do this. She was very poor.”
The younger Agnes struggled to make ends meet to offer for herself and younger youngster [Wanjiru Family]
Her associates say that on an excellent day Agnes would earn round 300 Kenyan shillings – lower than £1 ($1.35). On a foul day there was nothing in any respect, and he or she relied on the goodwill of her loving elder sister.
Agnes didn’t have any monetary help from the daddy of her youngster, and her associates say she was always attempting to earn cash, principally working in salons and braiding folks’s hair, at occasions turning to extra unconventional means.
One methodology, Buddy A remembers, was easy: Agnes would befriend somebody who provided to purchase her a drink, then quietly ask the bartender to skip the drink and hand her the money as a substitute.
At Sherlock’s bar that night time, Buddy A was scrolling via Fb when she observed Agnes in what seemed to be a tense trade with a white man.
“After I approached her to ask her if she was OK, she instructed me to go to Lions Court docket as deliberate and that she would be part of me shortly.”
Buddy A continued on to the resort, the place Buddy B and a number of other others had been already dancing. A crowd of white males was additionally current.
Agnes joined them a short while afterwards.
She instructed her associates she had “cheekily” tried to take a muzungu’s pockets, however a bouncer had intervened. The matter appeared resolved, her associates say. And to her associates, Agnes appeared relaxed.
“She was in excessive spirits,” says Buddy A. “She was joking round.”
At round midnight, Buddy A left for residence, leaving Buddy B and Agnes and their associates dancing.
“The muzungus had been shopping for us drinks, and Agnes was returning them to the bar in trade for cash,” Buddy B provides. The 2 began mingling with different associates. A short while later, Buddy B says she noticed Agnes depart the bar with one of many white males and assumed that they’d come to a consensual association. Different stories say that Agnes was seen leaving with two males.
The subsequent morning, Buddy B went to Agnes’s home and noticed her apprehensive sister, who instructed her that Agnes had not returned. She rushed to her personal mom’s home, the place she discovered Agnes’s child nonetheless in her care.
By early night when Agnes had nonetheless not returned, Buddy B and one other buddy went to Nanyuki police station to report her lacking, and return the child to Agnes’s sister.
For days, Agnes’s associates looked for her. At Lions Court docket, a watchman instructed them there had been “a giant struggle” in one of many resort rooms that weekend and a window had been damaged.
Almost three months later, Agnes’s physique was found in a septic tank close to the resort. She had been stabbed. Buddy B and one other buddy went to the mortuary to see Agnes’s physique.
“I felt horrible,” Buddy B says. “I could not think about one thing like this might occur.”
It will take years earlier than Agnes Wanjiru’s homicide drew wider consideration.
Kenyan decide Njeri Thuku concluded after an inquest in 2019 that Agnes had been murdered by one or two British troopers. The Sunday Occasions completely revealed that Agnes’s killing, allegedly by a British soldier, was well-known amongst the troops in Nanyuki. The publication reported that the soldier was struck off by the military however continues to reside freely within the UK.
“I consider that there are various males accountable for Agnes’s loss of life,” Buddy A says. “Many males know what occurred, and lots of have coated it up.”
Momentum constructed once more in 2024 when Open Democracy reported that the British Military had did not self-discipline troopers for paying for intercourse regardless of such conduct being explicitly banned in 2022, following the allegations involving UK troops in Kenya.
This prompted an inside investigation in August 2025, which revealed that some troopers on the base had been nonetheless partaking in transactional intercourse with girls, a lot of whom had been weak, coerced, or trafficked into intercourse work.
In April this yr, UK Defence Secretary John Healey met Agnes’s household, in Kenya to supply his condolences and challenge an announcement saying the British authorities “will proceed to do every part we will to assist the household safe the justice they deserve”.
John Healy met Esther Njoki in April – the primary time any UK authorities minister had met the Wanjiru household [British High Commission Nairobi]
On 16 September, a Kenyan Excessive Court docket issued an arrest warrant for a British nationwide suspected of murdering Agnes Wanjiru.
If extradited, it could be the primary time a serving or former British soldier is distributed overseas to face trial for the killing of a civilian.
“It’s extremely welcome and a optimistic step in direction of the arch of justice,” says Kelvin Kubai, a lawyer on the African Centre for Corrective and Preventive Motion. “Nevertheless the battle is not but received, given the authorized hurdles of extradition proceedings, and we hope the related authorities establishments of each states shall proceed cooperating to satisfy the ends of justice.”
Agnes’s niece, Esther Njoki, has created a GoFundMe web page in an effort to increase cash to help the household, journey to the UK and create extra consciousness in regards to the homicide of her aunt.
“We have to push for monetary safety for Agnes’s daughter,” Esther says, including that she is now a teen.
And Agnes’s associates agree that justice has been delayed too lengthy.
“The British Military can not preserve ignoring the homicide of our buddy,” Buddy A says. “We would like justice for Agnes and her daughter.”
A spokesman instructed the BBC that the UK remained “completely dedicated to serving to them safe justice”.
“That is topic to ongoing authorized proceedings and we won’t remark additional at this stage,” the spokesman stated.
*The BBC has modified the identify of all folks listed as witnesses by a Kenyan Excessive Court docket
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[Getty Images/BBC]
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