No prosecution of British soldier who shot Kenyan in back
Kenya’s former supreme court president has accused the UK of “racism” after it failed to charge a British soldier who killed a Kenyan man.
Tilam Leresh died after Sergeant Brian Maddison opened fire in 2012, just weeks after a Kenyan woman – Agnes Wanjiru – was murdered on a night out with UK troops.
An inquest in Kenya last year found Leresh was shot in the back, leading the coroner to recommend Maddison be put on trial for murder.
However British military authorities have now rejected that advice according to a witness statement seen by Declassified.
Dr Willy Mutunga, who was Kenya’s Chief Justice and supreme court president when Leresh died, condemned the decision.
“I have always argued that foreign citizens and countries must respect our constitution, laws, and orders of our judiciary,” he told Declassified.
The decision not to prosecute Maddison was “a hallmark of perfidy, double standards, hypocrisy, and racism on the part of the UK judicial system,” he said, warning that the rule of law had been “subverted”.
Despite becoming independent from Britain in 1963, thousands of UK troops still train in Kenya each year.
Offences they commit “in the course of official duty” are subject to British, not Kenyan, jurisdiction.
‘Self-defence’
Leresh, 27, was shot on a remote area of communal land used by UK troops and nomadic cattle herders from the Samburu tribal group.
Maddison was sent to clear the area of civilians and claimed he fired two shots in self-defence at Leresh, who was carrying a stolen rifle.
However, an inquest found that although Leresh was armed, he was shot in the back and could not have been aiming at the soldier.
A detailed court report by media outlet Eastleigh Voice said a forensic scientist testified that the position of the wounds showed Leresh “had his back, at least, partially exposed and was most likely slightly bent forward at the time of impact”.
Isiolo chief magistrate Lucy Mutai reportedly ruled that Maddison shot Leresh in the back and “no evidence was shared to show that the deceased ever shot the soldier first or at all”.
The magistrate recommended Maddison be arrested and charged with murdering Leresh.
‘Insufficient evidence’
After the inquest ended in March 2024, the UK military’s Service Prosecuting Authority “conducted a further detailed review of the evidence in the case”.
It concluded in May 2025 “that no charge would be brought because there was insufficient evidence to prove the killing was not done in lawful self-defence.”
This decision was only revealed in a recent submission by the British army to a Kenyan parliamentary committee that is holding an inquiry into their conduct.
That inquiry, prompted partly by Declassified’s investigations in Kenya, is reviewing controversies over jurisdiction.
This issue is at the centre of the Leresh case, as Kenyan police struggled to even access the crime scene.
A detective who testified at the inquest, Inspector Said Ilibae, said: “The guarded body was on a stretcher and we were not allowed [by British troops] to go near it. We were not allowed to carry out any probe”.
Sovereignty
Kenyan authorities tried to assert sovereignty after the killing, in a standoff that saw Maddison confined to the British army base there for over seven months. However he was eventually able to leave the country.
Wanjiru’s suspected killer was also able to return to the UK, but now faces extradition back to Kenya.
Officials in Nairobi have jurisdiction over that case because the soldier was off-duty when the offence occurred.
Wanjiru’s niece, Esther Njoki, visited London this month campaigning for justice for victims of British soldiers.
In an interview with Declassified, she called for the withdrawal of British military bases in her country.
“Why are they training in Kenya?” Njoki asked. “I think London is a safe place. They should be training here. I don’t think we have a Kenyan military here. We don’t. So, let them come back home.”
The Ministry of Defence was asked to comment.