- Wanjiru's death came to light last year when an associate of the said soldier claimed the suspect had confessed to the murder.
- Wanjiru was killed in 2012 and her body dumped into a sewage septic tank.
The family of Agnes Wanjiru, the 21-year-old woman allegedly killed by a British soldier in Nanyuki in 2012, can now sue the soldier after a court declared foreign soldiers have no immunity.
Wanjiru's death came to light last year when an associate of the soldier claimed the suspect had confessed to the murder.
Wanjiru was killed in 2012 and her body dumped in a septic tank.
After she was seen with the soldier one evening, she went missing and her decomposed body was discovered floating in the tank three months later, bearing stab wounds.
She left behind a five-month-old daughter.
There was a bit of confusion on how the family could get justice as the soldiers used the cover of immunity.
But a Nanyuki-based Environment and Lands court has now ruled that any soldier with the British army is open for civil and criminal prosecution, throwing out the immunity claim that it had clothed itself with.
Judge Antonina Kossy Bor on Monday ruled that Kenyan courts have jurisdiction to hear and determine any case involving the foreign soldiers should they be accused of any crime.
The judge said the United Kingdom government had waived its state immunity for the soldiers and the army corporately when it signed the Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) in 2016.
The judge was ruling in a case brought by the Lolldaiga community following a March 25, 2021 fire that was sparked during a training exercise by the British soldiers.
The community filed the case alongside environment activist group African Centre for Corrective and Preventive Action. They had sought compensation for destruction caused by the fire at Lolldaiga Hills Conservancy.
They claimed the fire forced wild animals from the bush to people's farms and destroyed crops and the resulting smoke affected their health.
Wanjiru's family had last year instructed a London-based law firm to sue UK's Ministry of Defence for failure to take action against one of its soldiers for the alleged murder.
The ministry had earlier committed to cooperate with the Kenyan criminal justice system to serve the family justice.
Tessa Gregory, partner at London-based law firm Leigh Day, had told the Star last year that Wanjiru's relatives had instructed it to take legal action against the ministry.
“We are instructed by the family of Wanjiru to challenge the Ministry of Defence's failure to investigate her alleged murder in 2012," he said.
The law firm had said the deceased's family had a right to know why it took the ministry nine years to hold the suspect accountable despite evidence about the crime being available.
The family, through the firm, accused the department of negligence and abuse of the rights of their kin despite overwhelming evidence that was readily available.
News about the suit was first reported by London-based Sunday Times newspaper.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations had announced that it had established contact with London regarding the case.
It said its director Goerge Kinoti had "also requested for joint investigations into the killing, noting that the British officers were back in the UK".
As a result, it said, detectives from DCI Homicide division were set to travel to UK to gather all the necessary information and evidence to tighten its case before narrowing to the main suspect(s).
-Edited by SKanyara