Bring UK man to book

The long wait for justice in a case in which a British soldier on training in Kenya allegedly killed a young woman over a decade ago is continuing. Indeed, it just confirms the popular saying that justice delayed is justice denied.

The woman’s family cannot have any closure on the matter as long as the suspect, who was able to return to his country, remains a free man 13 years later. 

It has been a tale of immense grief for the family, with unanswered questions and broken promises since Agnes Wanjiku’s body was pulled out of a septic tank at a Nanyuki hotel two months after she went missing. She left behind a five-month-old baby girl, who is now a teenager.

Her relatives, who had hoped that justice would be swiftly done, remain engulfed in pain and frustration, as the man accused of her murder, who was then a soldier with the British Army Training Unit in Kenya (Batuk), is still at large and beyond the reach of Kenya’s judicial system.

It must be quite frustrating for her daughter to try and make sense of the issue as the suspect has never faced justice in Kenya and Britain. This is, of course, a very complex matter with suspicion of a possible cover-up.

Sadly, some errant foreigners on Kenyan soil in military and other agreements between their governments and this country, have literally got away with murder. The assurance by the British High Commission in Nairobi that the UK Government is working closely with Kenya in the investigation is welcome but it should be hastened.

However, the family’s scepticism is understandable, as there does not seem to be any progress in the pursuit of justice.