The niece of a Kenyan girl allegedly murdered by a former British military soldier is to go to the UK to fulfill 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 evening she was killed, she had reportedly been at a bar with pals the place British troopers had been additionally current.
Agnes’s niece, Esther Njoki, informed 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 performing.
“Our complete 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 folks 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 overlaying up her loss of life and the Kenyan authorities of failing to correctly examine the case on the time.
Ms Njoki mentioned her aunt was a “poor Kenyan girl” and “for a very long time folks did not care”.
Nonetheless, her household, together with Kenyan rights teams and feminists continued to push for justice and in 2018 an inquest was opened into her loss of life.
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 Instances 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 stay within the UK.
In 2024, the military introduced it was launching an inside evaluation 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 ladies – 9 of those being after the military formally banned such conduct in 2022.
In April, John Healey turned the primary UK authorities minister to fulfill Esther Njoki and the Wanjiru household [British High Commission Nairobi]
Ms Njoki mentioned she would ask Defence Secretary John Healey about what techniques the British military supposed to place in place to guard weak native ladies who stay round worldwide military bases.
The pair met in April this yr 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, informed 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 will probably be efficient,” he mentioned.
Nonetheless, he mentioned the method might 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 in search of 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.”
