Agnes Wanjiru: Childhood friend says murdered woman was no prostitute

That night of March 31, 2012 when Agnes Wanjiru Wanjiku, 21, died at the hands of British army soldiers at a hotel in Nanyuki, her older sister had a premonition that something was amiss. Rose Wanyua Wanjiku, now 49, had turned down Wanjiru’s desperate plea to babysit her five-month-old daughter, instead beseeching her not to go out that night.

But Wanjiru was stubbornly determined to go out, as if death was hastening her to the unmarked grave at the Nanyuki cemetery at Kabiru near Nanyuki High where her bones rest. She had told childhood friends Susan Nyambura Wanjiru and Florence Nyaguthi Mugo that she wanted to go out and nick some cash from inebriated British Army Training Unit in Kenya (Batuk) soldiers who would get in her way.

“She used to tell me that these young soldiers who are popularly known as “Johnnies” in Nanyuki were rolling in cash that was begging to be picked, that she wanted her daughter to have the next meal,” Nyaguthii who is popularly known as Flora recalls.

Flora, now a plumb 30-year-old married mother of three, says her friend, with whom she grew up at Nanyuki’s Majengo slum, was no prostitute — just a girl who thought she was playing kukula fare. According to locals, most of the mud walled, dome shaped corrugated iron sheet roofed houses of Majengo were built by enterprising local women milking sterling pound from sex starved British soldiers.

It is here that Wanjiru, Flora and Susan also known as Sue grew up. Sue terminated her education in Standard Eight while Wanjiru went to Gakawa Secondary School and Flora attended Inooro Secondary School — both day schools in the vicinity. On weekends, they would clandestinely attend raves at the local clubs, but as they schooled, none was courageous enough to date the Batuk soldiers.

Flora recalls that on that March 31, it was Wanjiru’s idea that they go on a rave that Saturday. When her older sister refused to babysit her five-month-old toddler, she convinced Sue’s mother to babysit for her Sh50. The three friends then hailed a motorbike and sped off to a club where Wanjiru got into a friendly conversation with a drunken Batuk soldier before the girls decided to leave for Lions Court Inn on the other side of town.

“As we were leaving, there was some shoving at the door with the soldier. Wanjiru later told us that she had nicked a tidy sum of cash from the soldier  only for the club bouncer to confiscate the loot,” Flora recalls.
Joseph Maina Mwangi alias Wamatumbi who was the official boda boda taxi for Wanjiru and Susan whenever they were out raving, recalls picking the girls at Majengo, dropping them at Sherlock Den and then taking them to Lions Court.
“They were happy go girls enjoying their club run and nobody imagined how tragic the night would end for Wanjiru” Wamatumbi recalls.

Flora says Wanjiru started off by drinking water because she was scared of her mother. But when they shifted base to Lions Court, she was  in  no time boozing while sandwiched between two Batuk soldiers.
The two friends left the club at around midnight on Wamatumbi’s motorbike, leaving Wanjiru with the two men.
Asked how is it that the white Batuk soldiers find it easy to lure girls such as Wanjiru into the dark, Wamatumbi sighed.

“It is about money. The girls come to the hotels frequented by soldiers and then sit and order for drinks which they sip slowly and wait. Eventually, winks gets exchanged and business is transacted,” said Wamatumbi.
For Wanjiru, her playful night of adventure sealed by a wink turned fatal. She was never seen alive again.
An inquest into her death left Principal Magistrate Njeri Thuku in no doubt that the deceased was murdered by British soldiers who were on a list of nine soldiers presented by two witnesses.

Ms Thuku also found it curious that the hotel considered it “usual” to find a broken mirror and blood in one room.
“This points to signs of a cover up of misdeeds committed in their premises and should be the subject of an investigation by the Director of Public Prosecutions,” she concluded.
Revelations of Wanjiru’s cruel murder, the dumping of her body in a septic tank and a scheme that allowed her killer to escape justice created international headlines. An MP in the UK raised over Sh1 million for her orphaned child, while Kenyan MPs threatened to kick out British soldiers if the killer was not brought to book.
And on Wednesday this week, the UK Minister for the Armed Forces, James Heappey who is in Kenya, pledged the UK government’s support to justice and healing for Wanjiru’s family.

Heappey who addressed the media at the Nyati Barracks as the main base of British Army Training Unit in Kenya (Batuk) did not, however, meet the family due to what he described as time constrains.
Though he agrees the conduct of the soldiers in foreign land is a blot on the imperial army, his visit was outstanding for the many questions it left.

He would not comment on an ongoing investigation and or commit on extradition of the soldier for trial in Kenya.
He also defended their presence on foreign soul and freedom to integrate with local community as part of their overseas training.

But he said while Kenya parliament has every right under it’s sovereignty to cancel it’s defense pact with Britain, that needed to be balanced soberly with local gains. It also emerged that one of the main suspects has since left the British Army and was being investigated as a civilian by the Lancastershire Police Service while other suspects are being taken through due process by the Royal Military Police.

The Wanjitu murder mirrors a 1980 murder case involving U.S. sailor Frank Joseph Sundstrom, of Coventry, R.I., who admitted killing a prostitute, Monica Njeri, during a lover’s tiff. Sundstrom pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter and was fined $35 and released, causing a national uproar with wananchi insisting that powerful forces within the Kenyan judicial system had conspired to set him free because of the colour of his skin.

And in 1984, a Mombasa high court found a white American sailor innocent of murdering a Kenyan bar hostess, ending an eight-day trial marked by racial overtones and anti-American sentiment.