Best known for lying directly on the equator, the town of Nanyuki has grown into linked to a heartbreaking event. This is the place where Agnes Wanjiru was born and lived, and brutally lost her life.
A long time passed as her family looked for her, until her remains was found hidden inside a sewage container at the very hotel where she was last seen.
Growing Up
Agnes was brought up by her mum, who did what the family fondly called “side hustle jobs,” such as farming, while raising her family of five.
The oldest child, Rose Wanyua Wanjiku, was succeeded by a male sibling, James Mwangi, next Cecilia Muthoni, and finally Francinsca Njoki. Agnes was the baby.
During her young adulthood, Agnes stayed in Nanyuki. On the rare occasions she went away, it was solely to visit her sibling Cecilia, who lived a few hours away.
School and Hobbies
She started her early education at a local primary school, and later attended Gakawa secondary school. She enjoyed learning and her preferred subject was literature.
Agnes also loved music—frequently be spotted humming or swaying.
She enjoyed keeping busy in the food space and using her leisure hours with her relatives. As a sister, daughter, and auntie, Agnes was dependable and gentle, her family recalled. She was also humorous.
“She was constantly joking, grinning,” mentioned her niece Esther Njoki. “We were frequently chuckling due to her jokes.”
Her Dreams Cut Short
In her youth, Agnes would look after her young relatives, spending time styling their hair. Later on, she transformed her interest into a profession; she commenced studying to be a beautician in 2010.
She finished her training in August 2011. Only a few months later, prior to she had a chance to truly begin her dream career, she was killed.
During the time she was wrapping up her studies, Agnes was also in her third trimester. Her daughter Stacey was born on 20 October 2011.
“Agnes’s thoughts about becoming a mum were as if the best feeling in the world,” Esther Njoki shared.
She adored her little girl but struggled to support her. Like numerous women in Nanyuki, Agnes would earn additional income from commercial encounters. The British army training base offered a constant stream of business.
The Night She Disappeared
Soldiers would visit Nanyuki to socialize, and many would pay for sex with women from the area, often several in one night, offering them as little as the equivalent of £1 each.
Agnes would visit bars in the town to meet her friends and have fun. The night she went missing, 31 March 2012, unfolded typically. She went to the a local hotel, a favourite spot of British soldiers, to meet her friends Florence Nyaguthii and Susan Nyambura.
They said her catching up with them at about 11pm and the three women enjoying themselves together. Agnes was enjoying a beer that she mentioned to her friends had been given to her by a British soldier.
Rather than heading to her sister’s place like she did every other night, Agnes disappeared. The following day, her friends and family had gotten no news from her.
They returned to the hotel where she was last spotted, and passed days searching for Agnes, before her body was found two months later.
Family Trauma
Agnes’s death has had a lasting influence on her family. Stacey was five months old when she was separated from her mother and does not remember her, but has been traumatized after learning how she died.
“We have been experiencing moments where she notices something about her mum and she breaks down,” Njoki shared, “and that’s because of trauma.”
Njoki and her mother, Rose, have borne the pain of Agnes’s death for more than ten years. “You just keep on remembering Agnes, about the case, and you just become heartbroken,” she confided.
“It’s really painful, for sure, and upsetting, and our hearts will never be the same.”
