The British Military can not preserve ignoring the homicide of our good friend in Kenya

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 may be an extradition, it might 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 mates would welcome.

On the night time she went lacking on 31 March 2012, Agnes begged her childhood mates Good friend A and Good friend B to return out together with her.*

Agnes and Good friend A have been each new moms, each 21-years-old, each desirous to let off some steam.

Good friend B was wanting to exit too, and agreed to fulfill them on the bar at Lions Courtroom Lodge – situated within the enterprise district of Nanyuki, a market city in central Kenya, round 124 miles (200km) north of Nairobi.

That night, Good friend B’s mom agreed to observe over Agnes’s five-month-old daughter for a small babysitting payment. With childcare settled, Agnes and Good friend A set off, making their first cease at a bar known as Sherlock’s.

“There have been a whole lot of muzungu (white) males there,” says Good friend A. “I keep in mind some have been in plain garments and a few have been in military garments.”

The British Military has a everlasting coaching help base in Nanyuki, and white males, a lot of them troopers, have 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,” Good friend A remembers.

“Muzungus do not deal with us Kenyan girls nicely,” provides Good friend B. “Johnnies, particularly, mistreat us. They disrespect us.”

For younger girls like Agnes, the dangers of participating with these males have been usually weighed in opposition to the battle to make ends meet.

“When girls are financially determined, they may do virtually something to outlive,” Good friend A says. “I do not imagine Agnes was a intercourse employee although. I by no means noticed her do this. She was very poor.”

Her mates say that on a great 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 baby, and her mates say she was always attempting to earn cash, largely working in salons and braiding folks’s hair, at instances turning to extra unconventional means.

One technique, Good friend 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 night time, Good friend A was scrolling via Fb when she observed Agnes in what seemed to be a tense change with a white man.

“Once I approached her to ask her if she was OK, she instructed me to go to Lions Courtroom as deliberate and that she would be part of me shortly.”

Good friend A continued on to the resort, the place Good friend B and several other others have been already dancing. A crowd of white males was additionally current.

Agnes joined them a short while afterwards.

She instructed her mates she had “cheekily” tried to take a muzungu’s pockets, however a bouncer had intervened. The matter appeared resolved, her mates say. And to her mates, Agnes appeared relaxed.

“She was in excessive spirits,” says Good friend A. “She was joking round.”

At round midnight, Good friend A left for house, leaving Good friend B and Agnes and their mates dancing.

“The muzungus have been shopping for us drinks, and Agnes was returning them to the bar in change for cash,” Good friend B provides. The 2 began mingling with different mates. A short while later, Good friend B says she noticed Agnes go away 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 following morning, Good friend B went to Agnes’s home and noticed her anxious 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, Good friend B and one other good friend went to Nanyuki police station to report her lacking, and return the newborn to Agnes’s sister.

For days, Agnes’s mates looked for her. At Lions Courtroom, a watchman instructed them there had been “an enormous battle” in one of many resort rooms that weekend and a window had been damaged.

Practically three months later, Agnes’s physique was found in a septic tank close to the resort. She had been stabbed. Good friend B and one other good friend went to the mortuary to see Agnes’s physique.

“I felt horrible,” Good friend 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 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 imagine that there are various males accountable for Agnes’s demise,” Good friend 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 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 have been nonetheless participating in transactional intercourse with girls, a lot of whom have been susceptible, 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”.

On 16 September, a Kenyan Excessive Courtroom issued an arrest warrant for a British nationwide suspected of murdering Agnes Wanjiru.

If extradited, it might 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. “Nonetheless the battle is not but gained, 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 so as to elevate 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 an adolescent.

And Agnes’s mates agree that justice has been delayed too lengthy.

“The British Military can not preserve ignoring the homicide of our good friend,” Good friend 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 title of all folks listed as witnesses by a Kenyan Excessive Courtroom

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