The prime suspect in the murder of a young Kenyan woman was still at large in England last week, raising concerns that police and the army are dragging their feet on the investigation.
Former colleagues in the Duke of Lancaster Regiment claim the ex-soldier murdered Agnes Wanjiru, a 21-year-old mother from Nanyuki, Kenya.
In 2012, she was discovered in a septic tank on the grounds of the Lions Court Hotel in Nanyuki, near a British Army base. She had been stabbed in the stomach but was still alive when she was stuffed into a sewage-filled hole in the ground.
According to a Sunday Times investigation, the identity of her alleged murderer was a “open secret” within the Duke of Lancaster Regiment.
General Mark Carleton-Smith, then-head of the army, tweeted at the time that he would “support the appropriate authorities to establish the facts of the issue as quickly as possible.”
Despite this, the identified soldier remains at large, and key witnesses who were present on the night of the murder have yet to be interviewed. Last week, the man was seen walking near his home in the south of England. “Go away, go away, mate, go away,” he told a reporter.
“It is ten years and our hearts are filled with tears,” said Agnes’s sister, Rose Wanyua, who is raising Agnes’s only child. The UK and Kenyan governments have done nothing while this man is still walks free. “How can this be so?”
In October, a former soldier from the Duke of Lancaster Regiment, based in the northwest of England, reported to Lancashire police that he was shown Agnes’s body by her alleged killer.
According to Ministry of Defence sources, the key witness, known as Soldier Y, will be interviewed by the Royal Military Police on behalf of Kenyan authorities. Last week, the Ministry of Defence refused to confirm or deny whether this occurred. As reported by The Sunday Times today, other key witnesses such as soldiers present on the night of the murder, are yet to be interviewed.
There has also not been an investigation into eight service men – including Soldier X – ‘laughing and joking on Facebook’ about the mother-of-one’s death, the paper reported.
Last November, Kenyan police reopened their investigation into the murder of the young mother who was last seen with a British soldier at Lion’s Court Lodge.
Agnes’ body lay in the tank for two months before it was discovered, by which time the British troops had long since departed Kenya.
The UK sends six infantry battalions a year for eight-week exercises to the nearby Nanyuki army base.
The sex worker’s family has been pushing for answers and claims British and Kenyan authorities have staged a cover-up to maintain diplomatic relations.
Members of Soldier X’s regiment allege the name of her killer was an open secret, with five different soldiers identifying the same person to the Sunday Times.
But the British Army has never held an inquiry and none of those present on the night have been questioned by superiors.
An inquest was held in Kenya in 2019 in which a judge ruled the mother was ‘murdered by British soldiers’ but no subsequent action was taken by the army while police investigations has been opened by authorities in the Africa country.
The Minister of Defence (MoD) claims it cannot investigate as under a treaty with Kenya it must allow police there to do their job.
