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Once known for lying directly on the equator, the market town of Nanyuki has since become synonymous with a dark event. This is the town in which Agnes Wanjiru was born and lived, and brutally lost her life.

Weeks went by as her relatives hunted for her, before her remains was located dumped in a sewage container at the same hotel where she was last seen.

Her Background

Agnes was brought up by her mum, who took on what the family fondly called “small jobs,” such as working the land, while supporting her five kids.

The eldest child, Rose Wanyua Wanjiku, was succeeded by a male sibling, James Mwangi, then Cecilia Muthoni, and lastly Francinsca Njoki. Agnes was the baby.

During her 21 years, Agnes stayed in Nanyuki. Whenever she travelled, it was solely to visit her older sister Cecilia, who lived some distance away.

Education and Interests

She started her early education at a local primary school, and subsequently attended Gakawa high school. She loved classes and her preferred subject was English literature.

Agnes also adored music—regularly be spotted chanting or swaying.

She took pleasure in busying herself in the food space and spending her leisure hours with her relatives. As a sibling, child, and auntie, Agnes was trustworthy and caring, her family said. She was also funny.

“She was always teasing, grinning,” mentioned her niece Esther Njoki. “We were often laughing thanks to her jokes.”

Her Dreams Cut Short

As a girl, Agnes would care for her little nieces, often braiding their hair. Eventually, she turned her interest into a profession; she started studying to be a hairstylist in 2010.

She completed her training in August 2011. A handful of months later, before she had the opportunity to properly launch her dream career, she was murdered.

As she completed her studies, Agnes was also in her third trimester. Her daughter Stacey was born on 20 October that year.

“Agnes’s emotions about having a child was that it was the most wonderful experience in the world,” Esther Njoki recalled.

She adored her little girl but struggled to provide for her. Similar to several women in Nanyuki, Agnes would make extra money from commercial encounters. The British army training base provided a regular source of custom.

The Tragic Evening

Soldiers would come into Nanyuki to socialize, and many would engage in sex with women from the area, sometimes a few in one night, paying them sometimes just the equal of £1 a time.

Agnes would frequent bars in the town to meet her friends and enjoy music. The night she went missing, 31 March 2012, unfolded like many others. She went to the a local hotel, a common location of British soldiers, to join her friends Florence Nyaguthii and Susan Nyambura.

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

Instead of returning home like she did every other night, Agnes was never seen again. The following day, her friends and family had not heard from her.

They visited the hotel where she was last spotted, and spent a long time looking for Agnes, until her body was uncovered two months later.

Ongoing Pain

Agnes’s death has had a enduring impact on her family. Stacey was just an infant when she lost her mother and will not remember her, but has been traumatized after discovering how she died.

“We have been having moments where she notices something about her mum and she becomes emotional,” Njoki explained, “and that’s because of trauma.”

Njoki and her mother, Rose, have borne the heavy burden of Agnes’s death for more than ten years. “You just keep on remembering Agnes, about the case, and you just become heartbroken,” she said.

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