Murdered Kenyan woman’s niece to visit UK and press for ex-soldier’s extradition

The niece of a Kenyan woman allegedly killed by a former British army soldier will visit the UK to meet the defense secretary and other MPs to press for the man’s extradition.

Last month, a High Court in Kenya issued an arrest warrant for a British national accused of murdering Agnes Wanjiru, her five-month-old baby, in a central Kenyan market town, about 200 km north of Nairobi, in 2012.

The 21-year-old’s body was found in a septic tank of a hotel near the British army training camp in Nanyuki. It was reported that he was with his friends in a bar where British soldiers were present on the night he was killed.

Agnes’s niece, Esther Njoki, told the BBC she visited the UK to seek “the justice our family has been denied for 13 years”.

Ms Njoki, a 21-year-old communications student from Nairobi, said ahead of her arrival in the UK on Sunday: “The UK was very slow to act.

“Our entire family has suffered years of trauma, made worse by the inaction of both Kenyan and British authorities.”

Ms Wanjiru’s family has long accused the British military of covering up her death and Kenyan authorities of failing to properly investigate the case at the time.

Ms Njoki said her aunt was a “poor Kenyan woman” and “for a long time people didn’t care”.

But her family, along with Kenyan rights groups and feminists, continued to press for justice, and an inquest into her death was opened in 2018.

In 2019, it concluded that Ms Wanjiru was unlawfully killed by one or two British soldiers, suffering stab wounds to her chest and abdomen.

Later in 2021, a Sunday Times investigation reported that a British soldier confessed to his colleagues that he had killed Ms Wanjiru. The soldier reportedly left the army after the incident and continues to live in England.

In 2024, the military announced it would launch an internal review into the conduct of British soldiers in Kenya, including Nanyuki.

35 cases of suspected soldiers involved in sexual exploitation and abuse, including commercial sex with local women, were identified; nine of these occurred after the military officially banned such behavior in 2022.

Ms Njoki said she would ask Defense Secretary John Healey what systems the British military plans to put in place to protect vulnerable local women living around international army bases.

The pair met in Kenya in April this year and Healey said the UK government “will continue to do everything we can to help the family get the justice they deserve”.

Extradition expert Ben Keith, a solicitor at 5 St Andrew’s Hill, told the BBC that the UK has a long-standing but rarely used extradition treaty with Kenya.

“Therefore, there are strong hopes that the extradition will be effective,” he said.

But he said the process could be long and complicated.

The extradition request must be approved by the interior ministry and then evaluated by a judge, who will decide whether the authorities requesting extradition have provided sufficient evidence and what the suspect’s chances of a fair trial are.

But even if these conditions are met, it is the home secretary’s responsibility to give final approval to the extradition, after which the decision can be challenged in the Supreme Court.

The UK has previously agreed to extradite two Kenyan citizens to Kenya: Gilbert Deya in 2017 and Yagnesh Devani in 2024.

A Ministry of Defense spokesman said: “Our thoughts are with Agnes Wanjiru’s family and we are absolutely committed to helping them achieve justice.”