How I plan to share my firsthand account of Dusit D2 attack – Ex-British officer

Ex-Special Air Service (SAS) officer Christian Craighead is not letting go of his dream to share his firsthand account of the 2019 Dusit D2 terror attack in Nairobi.

This is after the legal hurdles hindered his quest to release a book titled “One Man In” were gagged.

Craighead who played a pivotal role in ending the 19-hour siege inside the hotel plans to release videos and documentaries about the attack.

The 2019 attack left 22 people dead including British charity worker Luke Potter with Craighead singlehandedly eliminating two terrorists out of the five.

“The story about that day in Kenya is not going away,” he wrote.

“I am sure we will continue to see more videos and documentaries appearing on YouTube and other media platforms,” he said.

Expressing regrets about the move to block him from unveiling the much-awaited book, Craighead explained that he followed the due process including working with the UK’s Ministry of Defence in “good faith” and also requesting a judicial review.

“For reasons I don’t personally and professionally agree with, the MOD and the courts have decided that this book cannot be published in its current form,” he said.

He has, however, thanked all his colleagues in the SAS and lawyers who supported him in the project including those who had expressed interest in purchasing the books.

Craighead was in Kenya with the SAS to train local forces and was relaxing off-duty when the siege happened.

The soldier with the elite regiment - whose motto is Who Dares Wins - seized the initiative and headed to the scene dressed in jeans and a casual shirt.

He pulled on a camouflage flak jacket and a balaclava and stormed the building armed only with an assault rifle, Glock pistol and combat knife, leading a counter-attack in which he almost single-handedly defeated jihadis.

In 2023, he lost a legal battle to lift a ban to unveil the book.

He told a High Court that a ban imposed on his book by the Defence Secretary was a breach of his human right to freedom of expression.

But, Justice Steyn ruled that national security and protecting the public by keeping the SAS’s tradecraft secret overrode his claim to freedom of speech.

Under strict rules, Special Forces troops must not discuss their missions in public or seek to 'cash in' on operations.

Using a pseudonym to protect his identity, Craighead wrote a book about the day he was told by a friend that an upscale hotel and office complex in Nairobi was under attack.

“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,” the book précis read.