Wednesday August 9, 2023
Kenya on Monday marked the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, and demanded compensation by the U.S. government.
Agnes Kavindu, chairperson of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee that is pushing for compensation to the Kenyan victims of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing, told journalists that the majority of the victims were innocent Kenyans.
"Compensation of the Kenyan victims is long overdue," Kavindu said.
The terror attack on the U.S. embassy in Nairobi on Aug. 7, 1998 killed 213 persons and injured more than 5,000 others.
Kavindu said that her nine-member committee is planning a trip to the United States in September in order to meet members of the U.S. Senate to request them to amend the legislation that excludes compensation for Kenyan victims of the terrorist attacks that target Americans.
Caroline Muthoka, an international convener of the Consortium of the Aug. 7, 1998 Victims Association, said that the commemoration was part of the journey to drum up support for compensation through lightning of candles and laying of flowers on the grounds of the former U.S. embassy building.
Muthoka added that the U.S. government has so far only compensated its own citizens, employees and third-party contractors who were affected by the bombing.
On Aug. 7, 1998, nearly simultaneous truck bomb explosions allegedly by an al-Qaida linked terror group hit the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing over 224 people (213 in Kenya and 11 in Tanzania) and injuring more than 5,000 others.
Washington claimed that the attacks were masterminded by Osama bin Laden, the former leader of al-Qaida who was killed by U.S. forces in 2011.