The Story of Agnes Wanjiru: The Kenyan Woman Killed Near Military Base in 2012?

Once known for being located directly on the equator, the market town of Nanyuki has since become synonymous with a heartbreaking event. This is the place where Agnes Wanjiru was born and raised, and tragically was killed.

Months passed as her loved ones searched for her, before her remains was found hidden inside a septic tank at the same hotel where she was last seen.

Growing Up

Agnes was brought up by her mum, who worked what the family fondly called “small jobs,” such as cultivating, while raising her five children.

The oldest child, Rose Wanyua Wanjiku, was then came a son, James Mwangi, then Cecilia Muthoni, and finally Francinsca Njoki. Agnes was the baby.

For all her 21 years, Agnes stayed in Nanyuki. On the rare occasions she travelled, it was solely to see her sibling Cecilia, who lived several hours away.

Her Passions

She commenced her primary education at DEB primary, and afterward attended Gakawa secondary school. She enjoyed lessons and her preferred subject was reading.

Agnes also adored music—regularly be seen singing or moving to the beat.

She liked keeping busy in the kitchen and spending her spare time with her relatives. As a sister, daughter, and auntie, Agnes was reliable and gentle, her family said. She was also funny.

“She was constantly teasing, grinning,” recalled her younger relative Esther Njoki. “We were often giggling due to her jokes.”

Career and Motherhood

As a girl, Agnes would care for her little nieces, often styling their hair. Eventually, she converted her pastime into a career; she started learning to be a hairdresser in 2010.

She finished her program in August 2011. Just a few months later, even before she had time to fully start out her professional life, she was dead.

As she finished her studies, Agnes was also heavily pregnant. Her daughter Stacey was born on 20 October the same year.

“Agnes’s feelings about having a child was as if the most wonderful experience ever,” Esther Njoki shared.

She cherished her baby daughter but had difficulty to provide for her. Like numerous young women in Nanyuki, Agnes would earn additional income from selling sex. The British army training base brought a constant stream of clients.

The Night She Disappeared

Troops would frequent Nanyuki to socialize, and a number would purchase sex with local women, frequently several in one night, paying them only the value of £1 per encounter.

Agnes would frequent bars in the town to meet her friends and have fun. The night she vanished, 31 March 2012, started as usual. She went to the Lion’s Court hotel, a regular haunt of British soldiers, to meet her friends Florence Nyaguthii and Susan Nyambura.

They recalled her meeting them at around 11pm and the three women having a good time together. Agnes was sipping a beer that she mentioned to her friends had been bought for her by a British soldier.

Instead of going back like she did every other night, Agnes disappeared. The morning after, her friends and family had not heard from her.

They returned to the hotel where she was last spotted, and passed days looking for Agnes, until her body was discovered two months later.

Lasting Impact

Agnes’s death has had a profound effect on her family. Stacey was a baby when she said goodbye to her mother and will not remember her, but has been deeply affected after learning how she died.

“We have been going through moments where she sees something about her mum and she cries,” Njoki shared, “and that’s due to trauma.”

Njoki and her mother, Rose, have borne the weight of Agnes’s death for 13 years. “You just keep on remembering Agnes, about the case, and you just feel bad,” she admitted.

“It’s really painful, for sure, and depressing, and our hearts are broken.”