On the night Agnes Wanjiru was murdered at a hotel in Nanyuki town, Laikipia County, in 2012, the management of the facility allegedly tried to cover up the incident, it has emerged.
In a recent interview, a key witness in the murder investigation told Nation Africa that Lion’s Court ignored reports of a scuffle and possibly tampered with crucial evidence at the crime scene on the night Wanjiru was allegedly killed by a British soldier.
Wanjiru, a 21-year-old mother, was allegedly brutally murdered as she partied with British soldiers and her body dumped in a septic tank at the hotel on Saturday, March 31, 2012.
The body of the sex worker was discovered two months later after a maintenance worker noticed a foul smell emanating from the tank.
Moses Moiyare, who at the time worked as a night guard at the hotel, claims assault incidents involving British soldiers were common at the hotel.
He told the publication that the military men, who train in Nanyuki in an arrangement with the Kenyan government, were unruly and destructive. But the hotel had no problem with them because of the business they brought to the hotel.
“When they were here, things would get chaotic. They were very destructive,” he told the publication.
“The British soldiers were the most frequent customers. Their presence attracted many women, mostly sex workers. They had a lot of money."
Wanjiru last seen with British soldier
On the night Wanjiru is suspected to have been killed, she was last seen in the company of one of the military men enjoying drinks.
At around 3:00am, while doing his usual night patrols, Moiyare recalls meeting four British soldiers at the reception of the hotel.
Something was off about them.
“They were very quiet, which is not usual for people who had been partying most of the night," he said.
Apparently, they had changed into civilian clothes and rejected the guard's offer to hail them a tax, as was the norm.
“They would usually ask for a taxi to take them back to their base, but they said they did not want one because someone was going to pick them up,” he added.
About 20 minutes later, a British Army vehicle pulled over and picked them up.
Suspicious, he went to the room where Wanjiru had been seen with the army man. He discovered that the soldiers had left some of their belongings including a sound system and bags in the room.
He also discovered that a glass door leading to the room was broken.
“The glass door was broken. I took the bags they left to the reception," Moiyare said.
The guard, who denies hearing a commotion, reported the damage to the management and the door was repaired a few days later. He, however, denies seeing blood in the room, as captured in court documents.
In a suspected cover-up, it is alleged that a commotion was reported to the management on the same night by an unidentified person but no action was taken.
Maiyare narrates that the soldiers were notorious for damaging property at the hotel.
The hotel, he said, would often ask the soldiers to pay for damages and let the matter slide without reporting to authorities.
Several sexual assault incidents involving the soldiers were also not reported to the police.
“I would find up to three men sleeping with one woman and rescue her. They would scream for help. Sometimes even on the lawn I would find the soldiers ‘lying on top’ of the girls,” he said.
He said a soldier would pay to sleep with a sex worker but his friends would join him and force themselves on the woman.
Apparently, despite the violations that sometimes escalated to physical assault, the management took no action because the 'soldiers paid well'.
The guard says he was fired a few weeks after Wanjiru's body was discovered.
Agnes Wanjiru inquest
Despite being a witness in investigations that followed the discovery of the body, Maiyore was never called to testify in an inquest ordered into the alleged murder of Wanjiru.
The inquest that concluded in November 2018 confirmed that an offence was committed.
"I find it fit to close the inquest and, in my opinion, find that there was an offence as committed," read a report signed by Njeri Thuku, a Principal Magistrate at the Nanyuki law courts.
Fresh investigations led by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and their counterparts in the United Kingdom are ongoing.
