The niece of a Kenyan lady allegedly murdered by a former British military soldier is to go to the UK to satisfy the defence secretary and different MPs to push for the person’s extradition.
Final month, a Excessive Courtroom in Kenya issued an arrest warrant for a British nationwide accused of murdering Agnes Wanjiru, who had a five-month-old child, in a market city in central Kenya, round 124 miles (200km) north of Nairobi, in 2012.
The 21-year-old’s physique was present in a septic tank at a lodge in Nanyuki, close to a British military coaching camp. On the night time she was killed, she had reportedly been at a bar with associates the place British troopers have been additionally current.
Agnes’s niece, Esther Njoki, advised the BBC she was visiting the UK to hunt “the justice our household has been denied for 13 years”.
Talking earlier than her arrival within the UK on Sunday, Ms Njoki, 21, a communications scholar from Nairobi, mentioned: “The UK has been too sluggish in appearing.
“Our entire household has skilled years of trauma which has been made worse by continued failure to behave by the authorities – each Kenyan and British.”
‘For a very long time individuals did not care’
Agnes Wanjiru’s physique was discovered with stab wounds to her chest and stomach [Wanjiru Family]
Ms Wanjiru’s household has lengthy accused the British military of masking up her demise and the Kenyan authorities of failing to correctly examine the case on the time.
Ms Njoki mentioned her aunt was a “poor Kenyan lady” and “for a very long time individuals did not care”.
Nevertheless, her household, together with Kenyan rights teams and feminists continued to push for justice and in 2018 an inquest was opened into her demise.
In 2019, this concluded that Ms Wanjiru had been unlawfully killed by one or two British troopers and that she had suffered stab wounds to the chest and stomach.
Then in 2021, a Sunday Occasions investigation reported {that a} British soldier had confessed to colleagues that he killed Ms Wanjiru. The soldier left the military after the incident and reportedly continues to reside within the UK.
In 2024, the military introduced it was launching an inner overview into the conduct of British troopers in Kenya, together with in Nanyuki.
It discovered 35 suspected circumstances of troopers having engaged in sexual exploitation and abuse, together with transactional intercourse, with native girls – 9 of those being after the military formally banned such conduct in 2022.
In April, John Healey grew to become the primary UK authorities minister to satisfy Esther Njoki and the Wanjiru household [British High Commission Nairobi]
Ms Njoki mentioned she would ask Defence Secretary John Healey about what methods the British military meant to place in place to guard susceptible native girls who reside round worldwide military bases.
The pair met in April this 12 months in Kenya, throughout which Healey mentioned the UK authorities would “proceed to do every little thing we are able to to assist the household safe the justice they deserve”.
The extradition course of
Extradition skilled Ben Keith, a barrister at 5 St Andrew’s Hill, advised the BBC the UK had a long-standing however hardly ever used extradition treaty with Kenya.
“There may be due to this fact sturdy prospects that extradition might be efficient,” he mentioned.
Nevertheless, he mentioned the method may very well be prolonged and complicated.
An extradition request must be licensed by the house secretary after which assessed by a choose, who decides whether or not the authorities searching for extradition have offered sufficient proof and what the prospects are of the suspect receiving a good trial.
However even when these circumstances are met, it’s as much as the house secretary to provide remaining approval on extradition, after which the choice can nonetheless be appealed within the Excessive Courtroom.
The UK has beforehand agreed to extradite two Kenyan nationals to Kenya: Gilbert Deya in 2017 and Yagnesh Devani in 2024.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson mentioned: “Our ideas stay with the household of Agnes Wanjiru and we stay completely dedicated to serving to them safe justice.”
