Killed by A Candle' - How Tony Blair's Army Led A Civilian To His Death

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DECLASSIFIED FILES
KILLED BY A ‘CANDLE’: HOW

TONY BLAIR’S ARMY LED A
CIVILIAN TO HIS DEATH
A Kenyan man working for the British military was blown up 17
years ago. The true circumstances of his tragic death can
finally be told for the first time.
PHIL MILLER
14 MAY 2024
https://www.declassifieduk.org/killed-by-a-candle-how-tony-blairs-army-led-a-civilian-to-his-death/ 15/05/2024, 14 04
Page 1 of 19
:
British soldiers with local employees in Kenya. (Photo: MoD /
Handout)
In March 2007, Tony Blair was preparing to step down as

prime minister after a decade in power. But the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan that he had plunged Britain into
were far from over.
British soldiers were coming under relentless fire from

Basra to Helmand – battles Blair had picked in a doomed
bid to impress Washington.
Both campaigns would end in defeat, costing hundreds

of British lives. They left behind a bitter legacy of broken
veterans and betrayed local allies.
Yet their trail of destruction went much further afield

than the official tributes have acknowledged.
With the army besieged from Sangin to the Shatt-al-

Arab, Britain’s infantry battle school sought to harden
platoon commanders for “high intensity expeditionary
operations”.
Page 2 of 19
:
Nestled below the Brecon Beacons at Dering Lines, the
school’s Welsh weather normally lacked the heat soldiers
would endure abroad. Conveniently though, Britain still
had access to vast swaths of Kenya.
In this former colony, the UK military had training

grounds four times larger than the Salisbury Plain. It
was perfect, or so they thought, for conducting the final
phase of a tactics course in hot, dry conditions.
A hundred miles north of Nairobi, a white Kenyan coffee

magnate let the old colonial power conduct war games
at his ranch in Ole Naishu for around a quarter of a
million pounds a year.
Local civilians, sometimes dressed as Taliban, were paid

considerably less to participate in the exercises.
Among them was 28-year-old Robert Swara Seurei, a

labourer with limited education or understanding of
English.
Robert was about to become an unwitting casualty of

Blair’s wars.
RELATED
KENYA
WARNED
BRITISH
ARMY
ABOUT
DANGEROUS
Page 3 of 19
:
AMMUNITION
DECADES
AGO
READ
READ MORE
MORE ›
‘Inoculation’
‘Inoculation’
The battle school had an ambitious schedule for its stay
at Ole Naishu.
There would be an attack on 12 March; a defensive battle

from 12-15 March; withdrawal from a defensive position
overnight on 15 March; and another attack on 16 March.
Throughout these manoeuvres, controlled explosions

would simulate the noise of artillery and mortar fire “to
enhance the realism of training” and produce “battle
inoculation”.
After each stage, the ground had to be checked for

explosives that had failed to detonate and posed a risk
to civilians.
These battle noise simulations (“BATSIMs”) were

overseen by a corporal, whose name is still being
censored by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) from a trove
of documents obtained by Declassified UK.
The paperwork, only released after almost a year of

freedom of information requests and repeated
interventions from Britain’s transparency watchdog,
reveal that the corporal was set up to fail.
Page 4 of 19
:
He was too junior to be in charge of explosives for the
exercise, a role that should have been given to a senior
NCO or officer.
He lacked the “appropriate maturity and experience” for

the task, was “clearly” given “too much responsibility”
and placed under “considerable” time pressure.
The army’s board of inquiry noted: “He did not feel that
he could bring this to anyone’s attention” due to his lack
of seniority and “merely ‘got on with the job’.”
That job involved attaching sticks of plastic explosive to

detonators and ignition safety fuzes, known as ISFE.
“This is a relatively mundane task but one that has to be

completed correctly,” the inquiry explained. “Too much
pressure applied inserting the safety fuze will close the
gas hole on the ISFE and subsequently eject the safety
fuze causing a misfire”.
It added: “Due to time constraints [the corporal]

prepared over 550 ISFE joins in one day.”
Ex-military explosives operators, who advise the charity

Action on Armed Violence, said preparing that number
of charges alone, in a single day, was “excessive”.
And it wasn’t long before the corporal, referred to in the

cache of documents as the BSS or Battle Noise
Simulation Safety Supervisor, began to realise he had a
problem.
Page 5 of 19
:
Robert’s
Robert’s aunt,
aunt, Irene
Irene Kipsuge.
Kipsuge. (Photo:
(Photo: Phil
Phil Miller
Miller //
Declassified
Declassified UK)
UK)
Retreat
Retreat at
at night
night
Halfway through the exercises, the corporal “noticed
that several charges…had whipped around…and failed to
detonate”.
Instead of sounding the alarm, he disposed of them at

base camp and prepared for another arduous challenge:
Thursday night’s fall back from a defensive position near
an airstrip.
The inquiry found the corporal and his “small team”

were placed under “considerable pressure to deliver
complicated support to the exercise” due to its “fast
pace”. In particular, there was little time to clear the
explosives, “set up new ones and reuse limited
resources”.
That meant as soon as soldiers finished falling back from

Thursday night’s mock battle, the corporal’s team
Page 6 of 19
:
immediately checked for unexploded devices while it was
still dark, “using head torches and lights from their
vehicles”.
They found five half sticks of plastic explosive and two

rings which had not detonated. The sticks were sand
coloured, effectively camouflaging them.
“Given the ground conditions in Africa,” the army later

reflected, “the search of the BATSIM areas was an
extremely difficult task, irrespective of the light
conditions.”
Markers warning about the danger of unexploded

ordnance were then taken away, while it was still dark.
Investigators said removing these hazard signs “before a

thorough daylight check” was “premature”, placed
people “at risk” and “contributed” to the tragedy that
would soon unfold.
“If the markers had remained in place those supervising

the [local employees] would have instructed them not to
enter the area,” they said.
RELATED
UNEXPLODED
BOMBS: THE
BRITISH
ARMY’S
DEADLY
LEGACY IN
Page 7 of 19
:
KENYA
READ
READ MORE
MORE ›
Language
Language barrier
barrier
Robert arrived for work on Friday morning oblivious to
what the corporal had done the night before.
It was the Kenyan’s first shift for the British army as a

‘LEC’, or locally employed civilian, and he was only hired
for two days.
The military trumpets such job opportunities as a major

benefit to Kenya’s economy, although the roles carry
extraordinary risks. Robert was given a briefing, but not
exactly the way one might expect.
The documents reveal he was “briefed by a Gurkha”

from Nepal, a poor country from where the British army
recruits thousands of foreign soldiers.
“As a result a person who did not have English as a first

language was briefing a Kenyan, who did not have English
as a first language,” an investigator summarised.
“It is therefore likely Mr Robert Swara Seurei did not

understand the dangers of removing the explosives from
the range, nor was he able to identify them from the
briefing he was given.”
After this, the local men were sent off to clear debris

from the mock battle. The corporal joined their search
and found another half stick of plastic explosive
Page 8 of 19
:
“complete with detonator and safety fuse.”
Despite this alarming find, the corporal did not warn

others that at least six of his devices had misfired and
could pose a particular threat to the unwitting local
hires.
This silence was to prove fatal. Robert would find one

and, apparently believing it was a candle, take it home on
the Saturday evening without the soldiers realising.
The army later privately admitted: “His supervision

would appear to have been inadequate, in particular the
declaration and clearance of [local employees] after they
had completed their range tasks.”
Fatal
Fatal
A few miles from Ole Naishu, at a small hillside
settlement, Robert placed the ‘candle’ on a shelf in his
hut. He wanted to light it for illumination – a sign of his
humble standard of living.
His aunt, Irene Kipsuge, and grandmother Cheptoo

“were unhappy with this plan and suggested that he lit it
elsewhere”, army files record.
“He moved to another part of the house and as he lit the

fuse it detonated. He sustained massive injuries from
the detonation and died instantly.”
Or as Irene told Declassified in 2022: “The explosion was

so powerful, pieces of his flesh were stuck on top of the
ceiling.”
The roof above Robert’s last stand blew off, its
Page 9 of 19
:
corrugated metal sheets twisted skywards and
peppered with shrapnel.
Irene somehow went to the police station, where a

British soldier and the ranch manager met her on
Sunday morning hours after Robert’s death.
Official records show she “positively identified a stick of

[plastic explosive] as the object” her nephew had ignited
via its detonator. The army then rechecked the ranch
and found five misfired half sticks of explosive.
A search of the sandbags used by local employees like

Robert during the range clearance revealed a further
three misfired half sticks of explosives.
In total, the army documents refer to at least 17 of the

corporal’s 550 devices – around 3% – that failed to
detonate properly during the exercises.
It said a contributing factor to Robert’s death was the

“incorrect fitting of safety fuse into the ISFE which
caused a significant number of misfires thereby placing
half sticks of [plastic explosive], complete with
detonators and safety fuse, around the area in
unmarked locations.”
The documents reiterate: “The reason for the charges

not to have initiated [on the exercise] is not known but…
it would appear the Safety Fuse had been incorrectly
fitted…which had caused it to separate during the
initiation process.”
Page 10 of 19
:
The
The blast
blast blew
blew off
off Robert’s
Robert’s roof.
roof. (Photo:
(Photo: MoD
MoD
disclosure
disclosure to
to DCUK)
DCUK)
Contributing
Contributing factors
factors
When Robert’s case was belatedly raised in parliament
following Declassified’s interview with Irene, defence
minister James Heappey gave a sanitised account of the
incident.
There were, he said, “a number of contributing factors,

including: Mr Seurei had not understood the safety
briefings and the dangers of removing items from the
range (due to language barriers)”.
The full farce of a Nepalese Gurkha briefing Robert in a

language they both struggled to understand was thus
obscured.
Heappey went on to admit there was “inadequate

supervision; premature removal of safety posts marking
the hazardous area (before a thorough daylight check
Page 11 of 19
:
had taken place); and incorrect fitting of a safety fuse”.
Again, the minister concealed the army’s true scale of

incompetence, this time by implying only a single safety
fuze had been misfitted, and not 17.
He concluded by briefly mentioning how investigators

recommended “clarifying the minimum rank for a Battle
Noise Simulation Safety Supervisor” – referring to the
corporal, or BSS.
Heappey made this sound like the most minor aspect of

the investigation. Yet the army’s own documents
acknowledge it was a central issue. The corporal was
simply too junior for the job and “should not have been
permitted to conduct Battle Noise Simulation”.
They said: “The pressure manifested itself in two lapses;

reduced time available for preparation resulting in the
incorrect setting up of the ISFE, thereby increasing the
number of misfires, and an insufficient search” of the
exercise areas.
After Robert’s death, the battle school in Brecon

accepted that “In line with new regulations the BSS will
be a senior NCO for all future overseas Battle Camps.”
The documents also reveal another acknowledgement of

how Robert was placed in too much danger.
The army decided that going forwards, local Kenyans

“will not be used to clear” areas where plastic explosives
had been planted.
Page 12 of 19
:
Another
Another view
view of
of damage
damage from
from the
the explosion.
explosion. (Photo:
(Photo: MoD
MoD
disclosure
disclosure to
to DCUK)
DCUK)
‘Great
‘Great regret’
regret’
In public, the British army admits it made mistakes, but
acts as if the case is closed.
When asked to comment for this article, a spokesperson

said: “Mr Seurei’s death is a source of great regret and
our thoughts remain with his family and friends. The
Ministry of Defence admitted liability in March 2008 and
the claim was settled in November 2010.”
An undisclosed sum of compensation was agreed with

Robert’s father, three years after the tragedy. Yet Irene
was not a party to that settlement, nor were the
investigation reports ever shown to her.
She only recently came to learn of their existence due to

Declassified. Initially, the MoD said it held 92 pages of
Page 13 of 19
:
material about Robert’s death, but that it would be too
“burdensome” on the department to consider it for
disclosure.
Eventually, following complaints from Declassified and

with the Information Commissioner’s Office
investigating, the MoD agreed to disclose 42 pages – less
than half of what it held.
Parts of these pages were censored: not just the

corporal’s name but also six photos of Irene’s house,
which the MoD worried would cause her “distress”. It
took another complaint with her consent to finally get
those disclosed.
The photos, which we are publishing today for the first

time, show the army was well aware of the damage done
by the blast to Irene’s property, but she was never
compensated for it.
Indeed, their documents wrongly refer to her

throughout as Robert’s mother, and not his aunt –
indicating the army might have thought she was covered
by their settlement with Robert’s dad, who lived
elsewhere.
And not only did Irene’s house catch fire, but her mother
Cheptoo lost her hearing and suffered chest injuries
from the blast. “She was really disturbed and never
normal again until her demise,” Irene told Declassified.
Irene had to care for Cheptoo constantly until she

passed away in 2021. None of this damage or distress
was accounted for by the MoD’s settlement with
Robert’s father.
Page 14 of 19
:
Upon learning more about the investigations into
Robert’s death, Irene told Declassified: “I hope this newly
found evidence and photographs open up my case and
remind the army they didn’t act justly by me.”
The evidence should also interest MPs in the Kenyan

parliament’s defence and foreign affairs committee.
They are conducting their own inquiry into negligence

and abuse by the British army, which is blamed for
causing hundreds of deaths and injuries after
independence.
Public hearings will be held at the end of this month near

Ole Naishu for witnesses to come forward. Irene may
well be among them.
Read the army files on Robert’s death obtained by

Declassified UK
Page 15 of 19
:
TAGGED: Kenya
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Page 16 of 19
:
Phil Miller is Declassified UK's chief reporter. He is the author
of Keenie Meenie: The British Mercenaries Who Got Away
With War Crimes. Follow him on Twitter at @pmillerinfo
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MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SECRECY ROYALS

AFRICA AMERICAS ASIA EUROPE MIDDLE EAST

KILLED BY A ‘CANDLE’: HOW

In March 2007, Tony Blair was preparing to step down as

British soldiers were coming under relentless fire from

Both campaigns would end in defeat, costing hundreds

Yet their trail of destruction went much further afield

With the army besieged from Sangin to the Shatt-al-

In this former colony, the UK military had training

A hundred miles north of Nairobi, a white Kenyan coﬀee

Local civilians, sometimes dressed as Taliban, were paid

Among them was 28-year-old Robert Swara Seurei, a

Robert was about to become an unwitting casualty of

There would be an attack on 12 March; a defensive battle

Throughout these manoeuvres, controlled explosions

After each stage, the ground had to be checked for

These battle noise simulations (“BATSIMs”) were

The paperwork, only released after almost a year of

He lacked the “appropriate maturity and experience” for

That job involved attaching sticks of plastic explosive to

“This is a relatively mundane task but one that has to be

It added: “Due to time constraints [the corporal]

Ex-military explosives operators, who advise the charity

And it wasn’t long before the corporal, referred to in the

Instead of sounding the alarm, he disposed of them at

The inquiry found the corporal and his “small team”

That meant as soon as soldiers finished falling back from

They found five half sticks of plastic explosive and two

“Given the ground conditions in Africa,” the army later

Markers warning about the danger of unexploded

Investigators said removing these hazard signs “before a

“If the markers had remained in place those supervising

It was the Kenyan’s first shift for the British army as a

The military trumpets such job opportunities as a major

The documents reveal he was “briefed by a Gurkha”

“As a result a person who did not have English as a first

“It is therefore likely Mr Robert Swara Seurei did not

After this, the local men were sent oﬀ to clear debris

Despite this alarming find, the corporal did not warn

This silence was to prove fatal. Robert would find one

The army later privately admitted: “His supervision

His aunt, Irene Kipsuge, and grandmother Cheptoo

“He moved to another part of the house and as he lit the

Or as Irene told Declassified in 2022: “The explosion was

The roof above Robert’s last stand blew oﬀ, its

Irene somehow went to the police station, where a

Oﬃcial records show she “positively identified a stick of

A search of the sandbags used by local employees like

In total, the army documents refer to at least 17 of the

It said a contributing factor to Robert’s death was the

The documents reiterate: “The reason for the charges

There were, he said, “a number of contributing factors,

The full farce of a Nepalese Gurkha briefing Robert in a

Heappey went on to admit there was “inadequate

Again, the minister concealed the army’s true scale of

He concluded by briefly mentioning how investigators