'The British Military can't hold ignoring the homicide of our good friend'

[ad_1] Megha Mohan BBC World Service Gender and Identification correspondent

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/b640/live/ef332a10-92e1-11f0-b391-6936825093bd.png.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/b640/live/ef332a10-92e1-11f0-b391-6936825093bd.png.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/b640/live/ef332a10-92e1-11f0-b391-6936825093bd.png.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/b640/live/ef332a10-92e1-11f0-b391-6936825093bd.png.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/b640/live/ef332a10-92e1-11f0-b391-6936825093bd.png.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/b640/live/ef332a10-92e1-11f0-b391-6936825093bd.png.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/b640/live/ef332a10-92e1-11f0-b391-6936825093bd.png.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/b640/live/ef332a10-92e1-11f0-b391-6936825093bd.png.webp" loading="eager" alt="Wanjiru Family A photo of Agnes Wanjiru wearing a pink fleece top against a blue background." class="sc-86c96223-0 fHZDyi"/> Wanjiru Household Agnes Wanjiru, who was 21 when she was killed, had only in the near past develop into a mom

Greater than a decade after Agnes Wanjiru, a 21-year-old mom, was killed in Kenya, allegedly by a British soldier, a Kenyan court docket has issued an arrest warrant for a UK nationwide. If there may be an extradition, it will 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 pals would welcome.

On the evening she went lacking on 31 March 2012, Agnes begged her childhood pals Buddy A and Buddy B to come back out together with her.*

Agnes and Buddy A had been each new moms, each 21-years-old, each desirous to let off some steam.

Buddy B was desperate to exit too, and agreed to satisfy them on the bar at Lions Courtroom Lodge - positioned within the enterprise district of Nanyuki, a market city in central Kenya, round 124 miles (200km) north of Nairobi.

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

"There have been plenty of muzungu (white) males there," says Buddy A. "I keep in mind some had been in plain garments and a few had been in military garments."

The British Military has a everlasting coaching help base in Nanyuki, and white males, lots of them troopers, had been a well-recognized 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," Buddy A remembers.

"Muzungus do not deal with us Kenyan girls effectively," provides Buddy B. "Johnnies, particularly, mistreat us. They disrespect us."

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

"When girls are financially determined, they are going to do virtually something to outlive," Buddy A says. "I do not consider Agnes was a intercourse employee although. I by no means noticed her try this. She was very poor."

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/112e/live/aa6dbb20-94a8-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/112e/live/aa6dbb20-94a8-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/112e/live/aa6dbb20-94a8-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/112e/live/aa6dbb20-94a8-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/112e/live/aa6dbb20-94a8-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/112e/live/aa6dbb20-94a8-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/112e/live/aa6dbb20-94a8-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/112e/live/aa6dbb20-94a8-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Wanjiru Family A full-body photo of Agnes Wanjiru wearing jeans and a chequered shirt" class="sc-86c96223-0 fHZDyi"/> Wanjiru Household The younger Agnes struggled to make ends meet to supply for herself and younger little one

Her pals say that on 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 little one, and her pals say she was continually attempting to earn cash, principally working in salons and braiding folks's hair, at occasions turning to extra unconventional means.

One methodology, Buddy A remembers, 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 a substitute.

At Sherlock's bar that evening, Buddy A was scrolling by Fb when she seen Agnes in what seemed to be a tense trade with a white man.

"After I approached her to ask her if she was OK, she advised me to go to Lions Courtroom as deliberate and that she would be a part of me shortly."

Buddy A continued on to the lodge, the place Buddy B and several other others had been already dancing. A crowd of white males was additionally current.

Agnes joined them a short while afterwards.

She advised her pals she had "cheekily" tried to take a muzungu's pockets, however a bouncer had intervened. The matter appeared resolved, her pals say. And to her pals, Agnes appeared relaxed.

"She was in excessive spirits," says Buddy A. "She was joking round."

At round midnight, Buddy A left for dwelling, leaving Buddy B and Agnes and their pals dancing.

"The muzungus had been shopping for us drinks, and Agnes was returning them to the bar in trade for cash," Buddy B provides. The 2 began mingling with different pals. A short while later, Buddy 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 experiences say that Agnes was seen leaving with two males.

The subsequent morning, Buddy B went to Agnes's home and noticed her anxious sister, who advised 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, Buddy B and one other good friend went to Nanyuki police station to report her lacking, and return the child to Agnes's sister.

For days, Agnes's pals looked for her. At Lions Courtroom, a watchman advised 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. Buddy B and one other good friend went to the mortuary to see Agnes's physique.

"I felt horrible," Buddy 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 Instances completely 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 dwell freely within the UK.

"I consider that there are numerous males liable for Agnes's demise," Buddy 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 inner investigation in August 2025, which revealed that some troopers on the base had been nonetheless participating in transactional intercourse with girls, lots of whom had been susceptible, coerced, or trafficked into intercourse work.

In April this yr, UK Defence Secretary John Healey met Agnes's household, in Kenya to supply his condolences and situation 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".

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/59c7/live/da90ba90-956c-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/59c7/live/da90ba90-956c-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/59c7/live/da90ba90-956c-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/59c7/live/da90ba90-956c-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/59c7/live/da90ba90-956c-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/59c7/live/da90ba90-956c-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/59c7/live/da90ba90-956c-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/59c7/live/da90ba90-956c-11f0-9cf6-cbf3e73ce2b9.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="British High Commission Nairobi John Healy wearing a dark suit and red tie shaking hands with Esther Njoki." class="sc-86c96223-0 fHZDyi"/> British Excessive Fee Nairobi John Healy met Esther Njoki in April - the primary time any UK authorities minister had met the Wanjiru household

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

If extradited, it will 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 constructive step in the 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 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 to be able to increase 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 a young person.

And Agnes's pals agree that justice has been delayed too lengthy.

"The British Military can't hold ignoring the homicide of our good friend," Buddy 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 folks listed as witnesses by a Kenyan Excessive Courtroom

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