Niece of Kenyan woman ‘murdered by British soldier’ calls on King to act during visit
The niece of a Kenyan woman allegedly murdered by one or more British soldiers has called on the King to act on her case as he visits the African country.
Agnes Wanjiru went missing in her hometown of Nanyuki in 2012 and two months later her body was found in a septic tank of a hotel.
She had stab wounds to her abdomen and a 2019 inquest concluded she was murdered by one or more British soldiers.
Before the King and Queen arrived in Kenya for the start of their five-day state visit to Kenya on Monday, Ms Wanjiru’s 19-year-old niece Esther Njoki wrote the King a letter calling on him to help bring about justice and closure.
Ms Njoki, who lives in an informal settlement in Nanyuki, close to the British Army Training Unit (BATUK) base in the Nyati barracks, also called on the King to visit her family – herself, her mother (who is Ms Wanjiru’s sister Rose), her cousin Stacy, and Ms Wanjiru’s surviving daughter – who was just five months old when her mother was killed.
She wrote in a letter to the monarch: “Your Majesty, we ask that you come to our aid by bringing attention and urgency to the case of Agnes Wanjiru’s murder.
“Please let not Agnes’s daughter Stacey grow up in a world where it seems that justice is elusive not only for the poor but also for people that look like her.”
Far from a symbolic gesture, Ms Njoki’s letter is a significant move that demands actions from the commander-in-chief of the British crown forces.
The British government maintains that the jurisdiction for the investigation lies with the Kenya Police Service. The inquest found that there were signs of a potential cover-up and limited investigations in the immediate aftermath.
But 11 years on, the men accused of her murder are still walking free.
While Buckingham Palace has said that the royal visit will acknowledge “painful aspects of the UK and Kenya’s shared history”, the King and Queen have no scheduled plans to visit Nanyuki during their trip.
Rather than the £70mn BATUK facility in Nanyuki’s Nyati barracks, they will be shown a display of British-Kenyan defence collaboration in beach exercises at the Mtongwe Naval base in Mombasa.
The King and Queen view part of the Royal Collection relating to the Royal family’s connection to Kenya, during a reception at Buckingham Palace. Pic: AP
Other events in Kenya have also enflamed discontent about the country’s post-colonial relationship with Britain.
A 2021 fire on a British army training site in Lolldaiga, Laikipia moved 5,000 complainants to say it impacted their health, livestock and environment.
The British High Commission in Kenya told Sky News that “no property outside of the Lolldaiga Hills Ranch was damaged by the fire and no large animals were killed.”
That has not quelled protests and demands for compensation.
“There is a feeling that colonialism is still alive and well, and therefore the general feeling is that there needs to be a change,” says Kenyan political scientist, Professor Peter Kagwanga.
He adds: “Let us be clear that compensations have been done in a number of cases but there has not been unequivocal apologies or denunciation of what has happened.
“Therefore Kenyans feel that they are second-rate citizens, the so-called children of a lesser God compared to their British counterparts – and as a result, that is adding to the cumulative grievances against BATUK in Nanyuki.”
In the hours before the King and Queen’s arrival, the expression of these grievances is being stifled.
Kenyan authorities are shutting down protests in Nairobi and have blocked a news conference intended to air allegations of human rights and environmental abuses by British troops in the country.
Even as the grieving Esther links justice with the King’s visit, Kenyan authorities are practising public suppression just to ensure it happens without opposition.
A £50,000 reward is being offered over the unsolved theft of a batch of early Scottish coins that were stolen 17 years ago.
More than 1,000 coins from the 12th and 13th centuries were taken from the home of Lord and Lady Stewartby in Broughton, near Peebles in the Scottish Borders, in June 2007.
The stolen haul spans a period of almost 150 years, from around 1136 when the first Scottish coins were minted during the reign of David I up to around 1280 and the reign of Alexander III.
The late Lord Stewartby entrusted the remainder of his collection to The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow in 2017, but the missing coins have never been found.
Pic: Crimestoppers Scotland
Pic: Crimestoppers Scotland
Crimestoppers announced its maximum reward of £20,000 – which is available for three months until 27 February – in a fresh appeal on Wednesday. An anonymous donor is helping to boost the total reward amount to £50,000.
It is hoped it will prompt people to come forward with information which could lead to the recovery of the missing treasures and the conviction of those responsible for the crime.
Pic: Crimestoppers Scotland
Pic: Crimestoppers Scotland
Angela Parker, national manager at Crimestoppers Scotland, said Lord Stewartby’s haul was the “best collection of Scottish coins ever assembled by a private individual”.
Jesper Ericsson, curator of numismatics at The Hunterian, described the medieval coins as smaller than a modern penny.
He added: “Portraits of kings and inscriptions may be worn down to almost nothing and the coins might be oddly shaped, perhaps even cut in half or quarters.
“You could fit 1,000 into a plastic takeaway container, so they don’t take up a lot of space. They may look unremarkable, but these coins are the earliest symbols of Scotland’s monetary independence.
“They are of truly significant national importance. Their safe return will not only benefit generations of scholars, researchers, students and visitors to come, but will also right a wrong that Lord Stewartby never got to see resolved before he died.”
Read more from Sky News:
Scientists reveal recreated voice of King Richard III
Robert the Bruce 3D model ‘most realistic ever created’
Angela Parker, national manager at Crimestoppers Scotland, and Jesper Ericsson, curator of numismatics at The Hunterian. Pic: Crimestoppers Scotland
Mr Ericsson pleaded with whoever has the coins to “return them to where they belong”.
He added: “Give Scotland back its coins.”
Lady Stewartby said her husband, who was a renowned numismatist, was just five-years-old when he was given his first Scottish coin.
She added: “Over the next 50 years, he put together a collection which included some of the earliest Scottish coins.
“Lord Stewartby told me and our children that they represented Scotland’s history at a time when few people had access to books or pictures.”
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports8 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway