Kenya’s arrest warrant is milestone in Agnes Wanjiru case but lengthy UK process awaits | Kenya

Within the spring of 2012, David Cameron was prime minister and British troops have been nonetheless preventing in Afghanistan underneath the stewardship of the then defence secretary, Philip Hammond.Earlier than deploying, troopers from the UK can be flown 3,000 miles south-west of Helmand province, to Kenya, for decent climate coaching. They might prepare at Batuk, the British military base that also operates at this time, near Nanyuki, a poor market city within the east of the nation.In a city that struggles with poverty, unemployment and restricted financial alternatives, many ladies in Nanyuki would flip to promoting intercourse for cash – British troopers being a profitable supply of commerce.Agnes Wanjiru, a 21-year-old hairdresser and mom to a five-month-old child, was amongst them. On the evening she disappeared, in late March 2012, she was final seen within the bar of the Lion’s Courtroom lodge, a well-liked hang-out with British troopers, the place she had been ingesting with two pals, Florence Nyaguthii and Susan Nyambura.The following morning, when Agnes did not return house, her household and pals started in search of her. They spent weeks looking out, till, about two months later, Agnes’s physique was present in a septic tank within the grounds of the lodge.Within the years since then, her disappearance has been the topic of a lot of felony investigations and inquests, Agnes’s household campaigning to get solutions whereas caring for Stacey, the daughter she left behind.Over the course of 13 and a half years, the marketing campaign was spearheaded by her niece Esther Njoki and sister Rose Wanyua Wanjiku, who noticed energy move between six prime ministers and 7 defence secretaries within the UK, and three presidents in Kenya, earlier than they noticed any progress.Their marketing campaign was solid into the worldwide highlight, and was given added momentum, when the Sunday Occasions, virtually 4 years in the past to the day, started reporting on Agnes’s case.Serving and former troopers who have been in Kenya on the time Agnes disappeared spoke out, with a number of coming ahead to call a suspect within the case.It put renewed strain on the governments of each international locations, amid anger and protests in Kenya over Britain’s continued navy presence within the area. Individually, the renewed curiosity within the case additionally resulted in a contemporary police investigation, led by Kenyan detectives, with the assist of the UK’s royal navy police.With jurisdiction within the case resting with Kenya, detectives flew out from Nairobi to the UK to query suspects and witnesses, a lot of them British troopers.After virtually a decade and a half with no arrests, no courtroom appearances, and no convictions, it appeared unlikely that there would ever be a breakthrough within the case.But on Tuesday, the excessive courtroom in Nairobi issued an arrest warrant for Robert James Purkiss, a former British soldier, initially from Better Manchester.It is just an arrest warrant, with the costs set earlier than the Kenyan courtroom not confirmed. Purkiss would have to be extradited with the intention to face these costs.It means the Kenyan authorities will first have to submit an extradition request to the UK Residence Workplace, which can have to be licensed by the house secretary, Shabana Mahmood, and despatched to the courts, with extradition instances usually heard at Westminster magistrates courtroom.For a suspect to be extradited, the courtroom have to be happy there are cheap grounds for believing the conduct described is an extradition offence, and solely then will a warrant be issued within the UK and a suspect arrested.A date would then be set for an extradition listening to in entrance of British choose, which Purkiss would have the chance to contest, earlier than the separate felony proceedings might happen in Kenya. The case is subsequent on account of be talked about at courtroom in Nairobi on 21 October.If Purkiss is efficiently extradited to face trial in Kenya, the felony proceedings would look completely different to these within the UK; the jury system was abolished in Kenya on the finish of colonial rule.Just like in a UK felony case, a defendant has the chance to plead responsible or not responsible, and if a case goes to trial, the prosecution and defence will set out their respective instances, with the chance to cross-examine one another’s witnesses.Nonetheless, it’s the presiding choose who comes to a decision in a case, slightly than a citizen jury, with authorized knowledgeable assessors, who help the choose in figuring out info, utilized in some instances, notably extra critical trials.Neither the Residence Workplace nor the Ministry of Defence has disclosed whether or not a request for extradition has but been submitted by the Kenyan authorities.“Our ideas stay with the household of Agnes Wanjiru and we stay completely dedicated to serving to them safe justice,” a UK authorities spokesperson mentioned.“We perceive that the Kenyan director of public prosecutions has decided {that a} British nationwide ought to face trial in relation to the homicide of Ms Wanjiru in 2012.“That is topic to ongoing authorized proceedings and we won’t remark additional at this stage.”