Typical. The British army thinks African justice doesn’t apply to it.
A Kenyan court recently opened (but then immediately adjourned) a case into the 2012 death of Agnes Wanjiru - a 21-year-old mother who went missing in her hometown of Nanyuki. She was found months later in the septic tank of a local hotel with stab wounds.
Her family allege she was murdered by one or more British soldiers serving in Kenya - and a 2019 inquest agrees. A soldier was reported in The Sunday Times in 2021 to have confessed to the crime.
But the British Army has now asked the Kenyan High Court to dismiss the new case. It claims the unit in question - BATUK, or ‘British Training Army Unit, Kenya’ - enjoys the immunity given to the British government.
Wanjiru’s 19-year-old niece wrote to Britain’s King Charles III ahead of his state visit to Kenya in October. She urged him to help bring about justice and closure.
But judging by the UK military’s latest intervention, her words fell on deaf ears. What is it trying to hide and why is it trying to stall justice for Wanjiru and her family?