The United Kingdom (UK) has accused Kenyan police of sluggish investigations into the murder of Agnes Wanjiru in Laikipia in 2012.
UK Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace said the Kenyan police only made a formal request for DNA samples this week, ten years since Wanjiru was killed.
“DNA had been formally requested in relation to the Wanjiru case by the Kenyans only last week, which of course we are responding to. We had never received the request,” Wallace said.
Wallace said the UK had not launched a parallel investigation since the incident happened in Kenya.
He said the Kenyan Police retain their jurisdiction and primary of the investigation as stipulated in the Armed Forces Act 2006.
Wallace, however, insisted that British authorities would assist in the investigations if asked to.
In a press statement, UK’s Ministry of Defence said that, while they fully support the investigations, they are unable to conduct parallel investigations while the Kenyan probe is ongoing.
“The Royal Military Police are in daily contact with Kenyan authorities and are assisting with lines of inquiry within the UK,” the Ministry tweeted.
Wanjiru 21, was murdered and her body was reportedly found near a septic tank of the Lions Court Inn in Nanyuki, close to a UK army camp on March 31,2012.
The report said that her killing was followed by a group of British soldiers holding a party night.
According to The Sunday Times, UK military officials covered up the murder of the mother of a 5-month-old girl, who was murdered by their soldier, who was on deployment as part of the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) in 2012.
Recently, details emerged that the British soldier accused of killing Wanjiru joked about it on Facebook with colleagues.
According to the paper, one of the soldiers in the Unit (the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment), posted two pictures from outside the venue where Wanjiru’s body was found.
The post was captioned, “if you know, you know” and tagged scores of soldiers out of which most, including one who is still a member of the unit, gave a response to the post.
One of them posted a picture of a ghost emoji, to which another added the words “septic tank”, the paper reports.
Soldier X, who is alleged to have been responsible for the murder, posted an angel emoji, which is used to convey angelic behaviour.
In response, the other soldiers posted “crying with laughter” emojis, followed by a cartoon image of a baby crying at a funeral, from Family Guy, an American adult animated TV show.
The publication reports that when asked if he “gets all choked up thinking about that place” Soldier X replied: “Come to think of it I have had a sore throat today.”
Previously, the paper says, sources had told the media that the suspect told the members of the regiment, that he accidentally choked and killed Wanjiru during sex.
Another soldier responded to his comment with a laughter emoji, while the soldier who had asked him the question responded: “Wow wow we wow.”
It reports that nine soldiers were involved in the Facebook conversation, adding weight to previous claims made by others in the regiment that Wanjiru’s death and the name of the man said to be responsible, was an “open secret”.
One of those involved in the conversation said he had not believed the rumours that Soldier X had murdered a prostitute that night.
“If I was laughing, I was probably laughing at the night, because it was a bit of a crazy night,” he said. “There was loads of women,” goes The Times story.
The publication reported that when they asked him whether he knowingly joined in with the jokes about the murder, he said: “I don’t think I was laughing at that [a murder].
“The rumour I heard is that somebody had sex with a prostitute, and the sex went wrong. To be honest I didn’t even believe it.” He added that he only thought the rumours might be true after seeing recent news reports, according to The Times.
The conversation prompted journalists to present the posts to soldier X last week which he declined to comment on them.
Source; The Times