US President-elect Donald Trump has hired a former Special Air Service (SAS) soldier who saved lives during the 2019 Dusit terror attack in Nairobi as one of his bodyguards.
The attack, carried out by Somalia-based al-Shabaab terrorists rocked the Kenyan capital on January 15, 2019, leaving 21 people dead.
Christian Craighead (not his real name), 48, is now set to serve a crucial role in Trump's security team ahead of the president-elect’s upcoming inauguration in Washington DC on January 20.
Last year, the former SAS Warrant Officer was invited by the Trump campaign to speak at a rally in New Jersey after first meeting Mr Trump at the White House in 2019. He was praised for his bravery in the Kenya attack.
According to the Mail on Sunday, Mr Craighead will become one of the president-elect’s bodyguards.
The former SAS soldier will be part of the security team for Mr Trump’s inauguration in Washington later after the incoming president reportedly told aides Mr Craighead would have spotted the rooftop shooter who attempted to assassinate him in Pennsylvania in July.
The former member of the United Kingdom’s elite 22 Special Air Service Unit is credited for rushing into the Dusit-D2 complex, located in Riverside Drive, and helping in containing the terror attack.
Mr Craighead, is said to be “working in the shadows” around Mr Trump and has been tasked with organising reconnaissance at locations where the president-elect is due to appear in public.
Footage on Mr Craighead heroism went viral on news and social media outlets, and he was awarded the UK’s second-highest military honour – the Conspicuous Gallantry Award.
He was awarded the award for his role in helping civilians escape the bloodbath and was personally thanked by Mr Trump after the event for "saving Americans".
During the attack, he was in Kenya to train local forces. He was not anticipating that terrorists were planning to strike.
With just an assault rifle, a Glock pistol, a combat knife and his indomitable spirit, he waged a counter-attack against the terrorists.
He was dressed in civilian clothing with a camouflage flak jacket and a balaclava. He was captured on television and photos as he assisted Kenyan officers in dealing with the attack. He also assisted people in moving to safety.
“When I went to Dusit-D2 in 2019, when Al-Shabaab militants stormed in, I was well prepared. My childhood life had prepared me for that moment,” said Mr Craighead in an interview with Shwan Ryan Show last year.
He said he was not the right man at the right place, and that the reality is he “had to be there on that day when the attack took place.”
It is worth noting that Mr Craighead joined the Parachute Regiment while he was a teenager and was selected for the Pathfinder Platoon.
During his service days, he worked on several deployments which included Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr Craighead, who grew up in North East England, in the interview said that he would not discuss his career life while he was serving the army but if allowed, in the future he would do so.
Currently, there is a gag order which was issued by the British Government that he should not discuss details of the deadly Dusit-D2 attack.
Legal battles have overshadowed his heroic deeds with the last order being made in October 2023, in which he was stopped from releasing a book on how he beat Al-Shabaab militants.
He launched a legal challenge against the ban which was imposed by the secretary of defence, saying such a move was in breach of his freedom of speech.
The court stopped him from releasing the book and that it was important because it would be protecting SAS’s tradecraft in the interest of national security.
The book entitled One Man In: The Explosive Firsthand Account of the Lone Special-Ops Soldier Who Fought Off a Major Terrorist Attack in Kenya was expected to be published in 2023.
Operating under strict rules, special forces are not allowed to discuss their missions in public.
