Greater than a decade after Agnes Wanjiru, a 21-year-old mom, was killed in Kenya, allegedly by a British soldier, a Kenyan court docket has issued an arrest warrant for a UK nationwide. If there’s an extradition, it will be the primary time a serving or former British soldier is shipped overseas to face trial for the homicide of a civilian – a transfer her pals would welcome.
On the evening she went lacking on 31 March 2012, Agnes begged her childhood pals Buddy A and Buddy B to come back out along with her.*
Agnes and Buddy A had been each new moms, each 21-years-old, each desirous to let off some steam.
Buddy B was desperate to exit too, and agreed to fulfill 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 observe 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 referred to as Sherlock’s.
“There have been loads of muzungu (white) males there,” says Buddy A. “I bear in mind some had been in plain garments and a few had been in military garments.”
The British Military has a everlasting coaching assist base in Nanyuki, and white males, lots of them troopers, had been a well-recognized presence. Locals referred to them as Johnnies, a nickname that carries unsavoury connotations.
“They made me uncomfortable as a result of I might heard dangerous issues about muzungu males,” Buddy A remembers.
“Muzungus do not deal with us Kenyan ladies nicely,” provides Buddy B. “Johnnies, particularly, mistreat us. They disrespect us.”
For younger ladies like Agnes, the dangers of partaking with these males had been usually weighed towards the battle to make ends meet.
“When ladies are financially determined, they’ll 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 supply for herself and younger baby [Wanjiru Family]
Her pals say that on a very good day Agnes would earn round 300 Kenyan shillings – lower than £1 ($1.35). On a foul day there was nothing in any respect, and she or he relied on the goodwill of her loving elder sister.
Agnes didn’t have any monetary assist from the daddy of her baby, and her pals say she was continually making an attempt to earn cash, principally working in salons and braiding folks’s hair, at instances 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 an alternative.
At Sherlock’s bar that evening, Buddy A was scrolling by means of Fb when she observed Agnes in what seemed to be a tense alternate with a white man.
“Once I approached her to ask her if she was OK, she informed me to go to Lions Court docket as deliberate and that she would be a part of me shortly.”
Buddy A continued on to the resort, the place Buddy B and several other others had been already dancing. A crowd of white males was additionally current.
Agnes joined them a short while afterwards.
She informed her pals she had “cheekily” tried to take a muzungu’s pockets, however a bouncer had intervened. The matter appeared resolved, her pals say. And to her pals, Agnes appeared relaxed.
“She was in excessive spirits,” says Buddy A. “She was joking round.”
At round midnight, Buddy A left for house, leaving Buddy B and Agnes and their pals dancing.
“The muzungus had been shopping for us drinks, and Agnes was returning them to the bar in alternate for cash,” Buddy B provides. The 2 began mingling with different pals. A short while later, Buddy B says she noticed Agnes depart the bar with one of many white males and assumed that that they had 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 fearful sister, who informed 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 good friend went to Nanyuki police station to report her lacking, and return the child to Agnes’s sister.
For days, Agnes’s pals looked for her. At Lions Court docket, a watchman informed them there had been “a giant combat” 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 good friend 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 might 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 solely 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 stay freely within the UK.
“I consider that there are lots of males answerable for Agnes’s loss of life,” Buddy A says. “Many males know what occurred, and lots of have lined it up.”
Momentum constructed once more in 2024 when Open Democracy reported that the British Military had didn’t 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 ladies, lots of whom had been weak, coerced, or trafficked into intercourse work.
In April this 12 months, UK Defence Secretary John Healey met Agnes’s household, in Kenya to supply his condolences and difficulty a press release saying the British authorities “will proceed to do every thing 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 will be the primary time a serving or former British soldier is shipped overseas to face trial for the killing of a civilian.
“It’s extremely welcome and a constructive step in direction of the arch of justice,” says Kelvin Kubai, a lawyer on the African Centre for Corrective and Preventive Motion. “Nonetheless 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 fulfill the ends of justice.”
Agnes’s niece, Esther Njoki, has created a GoFundMe web page as a way to increase cash to assist the household, journey to the UK and create extra consciousness concerning 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 pals agree that justice has been delayed too lengthy.
“The British Military can not preserve ignoring the homicide of our good friend,” Buddy A says. “We would like justice for Agnes and her daughter.”
The BBC has requested the Ministry of Defence for remark.
*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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