Ex-SAS soldier loses court battle to lift ban on Kenyan terror attack book
A former SAS soldier has lost his legal battle to lift a ban on a book detailing his role in countering an Islamist terrorist attack in Kenya that claimed 27 lives.
Christian Craighead was awarded the conspicuous gallantry cross for helping the Kenyan authorities tackle an armed attack by al-Shabaab terrorists at the Dusit D2 hotel complex in Nairobi in January 2019.
He had claimed in the high court that a ban imposed on his book by the Defence Secretary was a breach of his human rights to freedom of expression.
But Mrs Justice Steyn ruled that national security and protecting the public by keeping the SAS’s tradecraft secret overrode his claim to freedom of speech.
Mr Craighead, using a pseudonym to protect his identity, has written a book about the day he was told by a friend that an upscale hotel and office complex in Nairobi’s Westgate neighbourhood was under attack.
The former SAS soldier who had moved to Nairobi raced to the scene in his pickup truck with his weapons case on the back seat.
“For the next 22 hours, Chris relied on his nearly three decades of elite military training to win a deadly game of hide-and-seek with a unit of ethnic Somali terrorists who had already detonated one suicide bomb, and were intent on killing as many other people as possible,” says the book precis.
“At first on his own, and later as the leader of a small, rag-tag group of soldiers and civilians, Chris moved through the complex where hundreds of innocent hotel staff, guests, and office workers were still trapped. After clearing buildings and shepherding people to safety, he located the terrorists.
“A battle of guns, grenades, and tactics ensued. Chris and his men made it out. The terrorists did not. Told in white-knuckle, minute-by-minute detail, One Man In is an unforgettable story of heroism from a special forces soldier who happened to be in the right place at the right time and decided to act.”
Twenty two victims were killed as well as five terrorists.
Mrs Justice Steyn said that although she gave “some weight” to Mr Craighead’s wish to tell his story, she bore in mind that he had not been prevented from publishing any information about his upbringing or life before he joined the Armed forces, or about his service prior to joining the SAS.
‘Interests of the community’
She said the Defence Secretary had clarified during the private hearing that Mr Craighead could state that, albeit only in “bare terms”, that he had participated in the counter-terrorism operation.
“He has only been prevented from giving an account of an operation, the Dusit incident, in which he engaged as a member of UK special forces,” she added.
“On the other side of the balance are the interests of the community reflected in the defendant’s evidence. Those community interests entail the protection of lives, the protection of national security, the maintenance of the morale and efficiency of UKSF and protecting relations with defence partners.”
“On the evidence before me, the interests of the community substantially outweigh the claimant’s interest in publishing a memoir about the Dusit incident (even when buttressed by the interest of the public in receiving the information he wishes to disclose, and by the interest of his publisher).”