Laikipia County Woman Representative Jane Kagiri has issued an update on the progress in pursuing the British soldier accused of killing Agnes Wanjiru in 2012.
Speaking during an interview at NTV on Monday, March 31, Kagiri revealed that the matter had reached the National Assembly Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations, and they would be considering the matter before signing a new Defence Corporation Agreement with the United Kingdom.
According to Kagiri, this development was the result of the committee visiting the county for a public participation engagement attended by Wanjiru's family before signing the agreement.
"We, as the leaders of Laikipia, had demanded from the committee that they have to bring this case as one of the requirements as we go into signing the new Defence Corporation Agreement between Kenya and the UK," she revealed.
"The beauty about this case is that the Defence Corporation Agreement is actually approved in Parliament, so this time round we have put in a demand as Members of Parliament that the Agnes Wanjiru case must first be resolved for us to allow that corporation to continue."
She further affirmed that although the presence of the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) in Nanyuki was beneficial to the local economy, the lives of Kenyans were more important than that.
In the discussions, the MP noted that the issue concerning the high number of mixed children born to local women and abandoned by their fathers who are British soldiers was also being considered.
"We cannot allow anybody to come from outside the country and treat our people just the way they want," she declared, expressing optimism that the new tactic will work to ensure justice is finally served 12 years later.
Although the foreign affairs had noted that the matter had to be dealt with in the UK, she added that the committee was pushing for the suspect to be repatriated and charged in Kenya as the crime occurred in the country.
She added that fellow MPs had expressed support for their conditions when the agreement was being debated in Parliament as 60 per cent of the comments were made were of the case.
In October 2021, the UK's Sunday Times published a report that four British soldiers had made a startling revelation that one of their colleagues had confessed to killing Wanjiru and dumping her in a septic tank in Nanyuki.
Although the British Royal Military Police promised to expedite investigations on the matter, the suspect is still a free man 12 years on.
