Esther Njoki was solely eight years previous when her aunt Agnes Wanjiru was killed in 2012.
She watched as her mom Rose frantically looked for her sister Agnes for 61 days earlier than the physique was present in a resort septic tank.
Agnes’s child Stacey was solely 5 months previous on the time her mom was murdered and within the 13 years since, Rose has raised Stacey as her personal youngster.
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Agnes Wanjiru was killed in 2012, with Kenyan police accusing a British soldier of homicide
Her daughter Esther has grown to turn out to be the household spokesperson, urging the Kenyan and British governments to ship justice.
In all this time, the British soldier accused of murdering Agnes has been residing freely within the UK.
“I knew I had to take this responsibility, especially because of her daughter. She was left at five months old and is turning 14, and I always feel bad for her because it is a lot knowing what happened to her mum and knowing that the government knew and never took any action,” Esther tells us, by the tree that marks her aunt’s grave website in a Nanyuki cemetery.
Esther is now 21 years previous, the identical age Agnes was when she was killed. As an alternative of spending her time at college in Nairobi, she is getting ready for an vital assembly in London.
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Esther is to satisfy Defence Secretary John Healey. Pic PA
On Tuesday, Esther will sit with Defence Secretary John Healey and talk about on British soil the case of her aunt’s homicide.
“I feel excited but I am also feeling sad because at 21 years, I should not be doing this. I should be doing other things and enjoying my life but since the British government and Kenyan government failed that is why I am planning all this – to go and lobby for Agnes.”
The Kenyan nationwide prosecuting authority has lastly issued an arrest warrant for the British soldier charged with murdering Agnes.
The Kenyan authorities has expressed intent to request his extradition, however the formal course of is but to start.
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Esther together with her mom Rose
“Although they have taken long and [are doing this] because of the pressure put on them, I think something will be done because the warrant of arrest has been issued. But again, it is a long journey ahead of us. Extradition might take as long as five years,” says Esther.
“We want the guy to be extradited here so that he can be a lesson for other soldiers who think they can come to Kenya and do anything that they feel like doing because they have power.”
Agnes labored as a hairdresser and intercourse employee on the time she was killed.
In November 2022, the Ministry of Defence banned British troopers from soliciting intercourse abroad however an inside service inquiry discovered there have been low to average violations of the ban in Kenya.
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Maryanne Wangui
Maryanne Wangui, an previous pal of Agnes and chief of the intercourse employees alliance in Nanyuki, says that British troopers are nonetheless paying for intercourse within the city, however far more discreetly.
“They are using Airbnbs and they have their pimps who they are using to bring those sex workers to their houses and they do their stuff there and pay them there. We are not protected because if a girl is killed in an Airbnb – who will cater for that death?” she asks.
“It is at complete odds with what it means to be a British soldier. It preys on the vulnerable and benefits those who seek to profit from abuse and exploitation.”
The MoD additionally despatched this touch upon Agnes Wanjiru’s homicide: “Our thoughts remain with the family of Agnes Wanjiru and we remain absolutely committed to helping them secure justice.
“We perceive that the Kenyan Director of Public Prosecutions has decided {that a} British Nationwide ought to face trial in relation to the homicide of Ms Wanjiru in 2012. That is topic to ongoing authorized proceedings and we won’t remark additional at this stage.”
Agnes’s hometown Nanyuki is the principle base for the British Military Coaching Unit in Kenya (BATUK).
The market city was first arrange as a white frontier settlement within the Twenties after the mass expulsion of Maasai from the Laikipia plateau by British colonial forces.
It turned favoured by retired British troopers who wished to show to agriculture and sixty years since Kenya’s independence, the city nonetheless feels trapped previously.
Public hearings final yr noticed dozens of Kenyans allege violations by the BATUK in Laikipia and Samburu.
Native politicians, spiritual leaders and village elders have been amongst these from throughout the area to share their grievances with the BATUK and requested compensation from the UK authorities.
Esther made her aunt’s case to a committee at a group corridor in Nanyuki, and now she is going to make her case on British soil.
“Neocolonialism is still in Kenya. Even our government knew what these soldiers had done but they never took action, they do not protect their victims – their own citizens,” Esther tells us, hours earlier than her flight to the UK.
“For sure, these guys are still colonising us because why are they training here? They have their own land.”
