Sex workers stage protest in London over Agnes Wanjiru murder

Sex workers stage protest in London over Agnes Wanjiru murder

Sex workers at the Justice for Agnes Wanjiru demonstration in London on December 17, 2021. PHOTO: SWARM

British sex workers have taken to the streets in London to push for justice in the case of Agnes Wanjiru who was murdered by a British soldier in 2012.

Drawn from three sex worker organizations; Sex Workers Advocacy and Resistance Movement (SWARM), ECP (English Collective of Prostitutes) and the AAWG (All African Women’s Group, the cocottes camped outside the United Kingdom’s ​​Ministry of Defence headquarters on Friday in solidarity with Agnes.

“Agnes Wanjiru was a mother supporting a young child. Her heartbreaking death is a stark reminder that our lives do not matter to those in power,” one of the protesters said in the event live-streamed on the internet.

“We are here to demand justice for Wanjiru, for the British soldier to be extradited in Kenya to face the Kenyan court and for the decriminalization of sex work,” she added.

December 17 marks the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.

Agnes herself  was a member of a local sex workers’ organisation, Laikipia Peer Educators, and was murdered by a British soldier in Nanyuki in 2012.

Wielding red umbrellas and posters of Agnes labelled ‘They are literally getting away with murder’, the group was heard chanting ‘No bad woman, just bad laws’ and ‘outlaw poverty not prostitution’. 

‘Don’t put us on the street, it’s 10x more dangerous’, ‘Tunataka haki ya Agnes Wanjiru sasa!’ other placards read.

The group further decried what they termed as crackdown by moralists, ‘feminists’ and police, stating that it put their lives in danger.

Just last month, Defence CS Eugene Wamalwa told the National Assembly Defence Committee that the British soldiers involved in the murder of Agnes will be extradited to Kenya to face murder charges.

Wamalwa said they have agreed with the British Government to do a joint investigation and bring the culprits to the country to face justice.

He said the government is considering the issue as the highest priority, dismissing claims of a cover-up.

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Agnes Wanjiru

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