More than a decade after 21-year-old mother Agnes Wanjiru was brutally murdered in Kenya, her friends say justice has been delayed far too long. Now, with a Kenyan court issuing an arrest warrant for a British national suspected of her killing, they are demanding the UK finally act.
If extradited, it would mark a historic first, the first time a serving or former British soldier has been sent abroad to face trial for the murder of a civilian.
Agnes disappeared on the night of 31 March 2012, after heading out with friends to bars in Nanyuki, a bustling town north of Nairobi and home to a British Army training base. That evening, her baby daughter was left in the care of a family member while Agnes enjoyed a rare night off with her friends.
At Sherlock’s bar, packed with British soldiers, known locally as “Johnnies”, Agnes was seen chatting with a white man. Later that night, she left Lions Court Hotel with at least one soldier. She never returned.
For days, her friends searched desperately, but it wasn’t until nearly three months later that her body was discovered in a septic tank near the hotel. She had been stabbed.
“I felt terrible,” recalls one friend. “I couldn’t imagine something like this could happen.”
In 2019, a Kenyan judge concluded that Agnes had been murdered by one or two British soldiers. Reports later revealed her killing was an “open secret” among troops stationed in Nanyuki. One soldier was allegedly struck off by the Army but has since lived freely in the UK.
Her friends believe there has been a cover-up. “Many men know what happened, and many have covered it up,” says one.
The case resurfaced in 2024 when fresh investigations revealed British troops were still paying for sex in Kenya, despite a 2022 ban and repeated scandals over the exploitation of vulnerable women. By August 2025, a damning internal report confirmed that transactional sex, often involving coercion or trafficking, was still taking place.
In April this year, UK Defence Secretary John Healey met Agnes’s family in Kenya, promising that Britain would “do everything we can” to help them secure justice.
Now, with the September arrest warrant, her family and friends say it is time for action.
“This is highly welcome and a positive step,” said lawyer Kelvin Kubai of the African Centre for Corrective and Preventive Action. “But the battle isn’t yet won. Extradition is never simple, both governments must cooperate fully.”
Agnes’s niece, Esther Njoki, has launched a GoFundMe to support the family and raise money for her cousin, Agnes’s daughter, now a teenager. “We need to push for financial security for Agnes’s daughter,” she said.
For her friends, though, the message is simple: “The British Army cannot keep ignoring the murder of our friend. We want justice for Agnes and her daughter.”
The UK government says it remains “absolutely committed” to helping the family, but with the case now in legal proceedings, officials have declined to comment further.
