🔗 Share this article

Once known for sitting directly on the equator, the market town of Nanyuki has since become associated with a heartbreaking event. This is the place where Agnes Wanjiru was born and raised, and brutally murdered.

A long time went by as her relatives searched for her, until her body was discovered stuffed into a waste tank at the same hotel where she was last seen.

Her Background

Agnes was cared for by her parent, who worked what the family fondly called “small jobs,” such as working the land, while bringing up her five children.

The oldest daughter, Rose Wanyua Wanjiku, was then came a brother, James Mwangi, next Cecilia Muthoni, and finally Francinsca Njoki. Agnes was the last born.

During her short life, Agnes resided in Nanyuki. If she ever travelled, it was only to see her sibling Cecilia, who lived several hours away.

Education and Interests

She began her early education at a Nanyuki school, and afterward enrolled at Gakawa high school. She enjoyed lessons and her favourite subject was literature.

Agnes also was passionate about music—she would often be seen singing or moving to the beat.

She liked working in the cooking area and spending her free time with her extended family. As a sister, child, and auntie, Agnes was dependable and caring, her family shared. She was also witty.

“She was always joking, beaming,” recalled her family member Esther Njoki. “We were always laughing due to her jokes.”

Her Dreams Cut Short

Growing up, Agnes would watch over her younger nieces, often styling their hair. Eventually, she converted her interest into a profession; she commenced learning to be a hairdresser in 2010.

She completed her training in August 2011. Only a few months later, before she had a chance to truly begin her dream career, she was murdered.

As she finished her studies, Agnes was also expecting a child. Her baby girl Stacey was born on 20 October that year.

“Agnes’s emotions about motherhood was as if the most wonderful experience imaginable,” Esther Njoki said.

She adored her little girl but had difficulty to provide for her. As with many locals in Nanyuki, Agnes would supplement her earnings from selling sex. The nearby military camp offered a steady flow of clients.

The Night She Disappeared

Troops would come into Nanyuki to drink, and several would engage in sex with women from the area, often multiple in one night, offering them only the value of £1 each.

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

They said her meeting them at approximately 11pm and the three women enjoying themselves together. Agnes was drinking a beer that she informed her friends had been purchased for her by a British soldier.

Contrary to going back as she had every other night, Agnes vanished. The next morning, her friends and family had received no word from her.

They returned to the hotel where she was last spotted, and devoted weeks searching for Agnes, before her body was found two months later.

Lasting Impact

Agnes’s death has had a lasting impact on her family. Stacey was a baby when she said goodbye to her mother and will not remember her, but has been traumatized after finding out how she died.

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

Njoki and her mother, Rose, have borne the weight of Agnes’s death for over a decade. “You just keep on thinking about Agnes, about the case, and you just get upset,” she confided.

“It’s really painful, for sure, and upsetting, and our hearts will never be the same.”