‘The British Army cannot keep ignoring the murder of our friend’

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’s an extradition, it might be the primary time a serving or former British soldier is shipped overseas to face trial for the homicide of a civilian – a transfer her buddies would welcome.

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

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

Good friend B was desperate to exit too, and agreed to satisfy them on the bar at Lions Court docket Resort – 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 look at 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 referred to as Sherlock’s.

“There have been lots 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, lots 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 dangerous issues about muzungu males,” Good friend A recollects.

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

For younger ladies like Agnes, the dangers of partaking with these males have been typically weighed towards the wrestle to make ends meet.

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

Her buddies say that on day Agnes would earn round 300 Kenyan shillings – lower than £1 ($1.35). On a nasty 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 buddies say she was continuously making an attempt to earn cash, principally working in salons and braiding individuals’s hair, at instances turning to extra unconventional means.

One technique, Good friend A recollects, was easy: Agnes would befriend somebody who supplied 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 by means of Fb when she observed Agnes in what gave the impression to be a tense trade with a white man.

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

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

Agnes joined them a short time afterwards.

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

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

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

“The muzungus have been shopping for us drinks, and Agnes was returning them to the bar in trade for cash,” Good friend B provides. The 2 began mingling with different buddies. A short time 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. Other reports say that Agnes was seen leaving with two men.

The subsequent morning, Good friend B went to Agnes’s home and noticed her anxious sister, who informed 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 buddy went to Nanyuki police station to report her lacking, and return the infant to Agnes’s sister.

For days, Agnes’s buddies looked for her. At Lions Court docket, a watchman informed them there had been “an enormous struggle” in one of many lodge rooms that weekend and a window had been damaged.

Almost three months later, Agnes’s physique was found in a septic tank close to the lodge. She had been stabbed. Good friend B and one other buddy 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 choose Njeri Thuku concluded after an inquest in 2019 that Agnes had been murdered by one or two British troopers. The Sunday Times exclusively 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 consider that there are numerous males answerable for Agnes’s dying,” 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 Army had failed to discipline soldiers for paying for intercourse despite 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 partaking in transactional intercourse with ladies, lots of whom have been susceptible, coerced, or trafficked into intercourse work.

In April this 12 months, UK Defence Secretary John Healey met Agnes’s family, in Kenya to supply his condolences and subject a press release saying the British authorities “will proceed to do all the pieces we will to assist the household safe the justice they deserve”.

On 16 September, a Kenyan High Court issued an arrest warrant for a British national suspected of murdering Agnes Wanjiru.

If extradited, it might be the primary time a serving or former British soldier is shipped 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. “Nevertheless the battle is not but received, given the authorized hurdles of extradition proceedings, and we hope the related authorities establishments of each states shall proceed cooperating to satisfy 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 concerning 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 buddies agree that justice has been delayed too lengthy.

“The British Military can’t preserve ignoring the homicide of our buddy,” 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 identify of all individuals listed as witnesses by a Kenyan Excessive Court docket