Nanyuki murder: British MP raises Sh1m for Agnes Wanjiru's family
Agnes Wanjiru, who was found dead in 2012 after she went missing.
A British member of parliament has started crowdfunding to raise money for the family of the late Agnes Wanjiru.
According to the page, Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley Ms Jess Phillips has managed to raise £7,213 (about Sh1.1 million) for Wanjiru’s daughter, surpassing the initial target by 144 percent.
The MP started the page for Wanjiru’s daughter Stacy, who is now almost 10 years old and being raised by her aunt.
“We want to raise funds to help Stacy and her family following the horrific death of her mother, allowing them to provide the best environment for her to grow up in and make sure she has the brightest possible future. Please donate what you can to help them,” she wrote on the page.
The UK parliament is pushing for justice in the murder of Wanjiru, who was killed by a British soldier in 2012.
No one has been convicted of her murder, even as the UK defence chief last week promised military cooperation.
Her body was found in a septic tank at a hotel in central Nanyuki nearly three months after she had spent an evening partying with soldiers.
It is now emerging that British soldiers laughed about the death of Wanjiru.
On Sunday, the Sunday Times reported that a soldier in the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment posted two photos from outside the hotel where the 21-year-old’s body was discovered.
The soldier captioned the photos, “If you know, you know”, with a crying laughter emoji and tagged a number of his colleagues.
The UK publication reported that several soldiers reacted to the Facebook post, with one posting a ghost emoji while another commented “septic tank”. A third wrote ‘Rum gaff’, meaning dodgy place.
The body of Wanjiru was discovered in a septic tank at Lions Court Inn Hotel in Nanyuki, three months after her disappearance.
On the night she went missing, Wanjiru was at the hotel, where dozens of British soldiers were drinking and dancing.
Wanjiru reportedly left the seating area in the company of one of the soldiers and that was the last time she was seen alive.
Upon the discovery of her body, investigations established that she was stabbed to death and suffered a blunt-force injury to her chest, with her lungs collapsing.
She was trying to support her baby while living with her sister in a single room in the Majengo slums, Nanyuki.
Wanjiru's family alleges that Kenyan and British authorities staged a cover-up to maintain diplomatic relations between the two countries. The army base in Nanyuki is where the UK sends six infantry battalions for eight-week exercises annually.
The Sunday Times established that five soldiers provided the same name of the officer, saying that on the fateful night, he showed them the body of the woman, which was stashed in a tank.
A soldier in the Duke of Lancaster regiment said the murder suspect showed him the body of Wanjiru after a night of drunken debauchery.
“He took me to the tank and lifted it up, and I looked in and I just remember seeing her in there. My heart sank. My mind just went blank. The only thing I could say to him was: 'I'll never forgive you for this,'' he is quoted saying by the publication.
