are Africans not human?

Tuesday was the 9th Anniversary of the 1998 bomb blasts (attributed to Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden) at the US Embassy in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam.

Below is the speech made by Naomi Kerongo, Chair of the Bomb Blast Welfare Society, at the August 7th Memorial Park, Nairobi.

Friends, fellow survivors of the 7th August bomb blast, families of victims, ladies and gentlemen:

Nine years ago, our world as we knew it was changed forever. Statistics indicate that on that day, 250 Kenyans had their lives abruptly cut short and 5000 others were injured. But statistics do not tell the real story.

For statistics cannot tell of the weary years and the silent tears that have been our lot since 10.30 a.m. that fateful Friday morning. Statistics cannot recount the pain and frustration of those who were blinded and crippled by random violence unleashed upon unsuspecting, defenseless people; statistics cannot speak of the cry of the orphan or the despair of the fatherless; statistics cannot paint an accurate picture of all those rendered destitute, reduced to hobbling from office to office begging for alms if only to be able to meet their ever increasing medical costs. We have become Kenya’s unofficial 43rd tribe made up of those who bear the scars of August 7th 1998.

Many times, each one of us has entertained a vain wish that it were possible to reverse the time to August 6th 1998. For then we would have taken the day off like so many workers at the World Trade Centre are alleged to have done on September 11th 2001. We are all proudly Kenya, but there are days we wish we were Americans, for then we would have been fully compensated as were our American counterparts were, following the bomb blast. Sometimes we even wish we were made of steel, glass and concrete like the Cooperative Building which, alongside others that were damaged by the blast, were fully compensated while human beings were treated like collateral damage and left to suffer and ultimately die from the injuries they suffered.

For the last nine years, we have been demanding compensation from the American government. We have been told that America cannot compensate us because it too was a victim and that they will only pay compensation once the alleged mastermind of this crime, one Osama bin Laden, is apprehended, brought to justice and his assets seized. But our position today remains the same as it has always been: It is made up of three simple points:

* America cannot continue to play the victim. The US has not been targeted by alleged terrorists for nothing. Their policies around the world make them a target of terrorism; the American people directly benefit from those policies, and when things go wrong, as they so obviously did that Friday morning, the celebrated super power must pick up the pieces. With great power must come great responsibility, and Americans have dismally failed to take that responsibility. But we shall not tire to remind them to do the right thing and fully compensate those who were killed or injured by the bomb.
* Ambassador Prudence Bushnell, who was the Chief of Mission at the time of the blast, is on record as having sent several desperate requests to the State Department to urgently relocate the embassy as it was in danger of being targeted. Locating a US embassy in a busy intersection in the Central Business District, next to a busy bus stop was clearly negligent. The US government knew this prior to the attack. But they chose to save money and ended up exposing innocent Kenyans to grave danger. They must take responsibility and compensate fully all those who were killed or injured as a result of their culpable negligence.
* The Americans who were killed or injured in the 1998 attacks and the subsequent attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 were fully compensated for their loss. Several questions then need to be asked: are Africans not human? Do we not cry when we are hurt; do we not bleed when we are cut? Or are we the children of a lesser god?

The Kenyan government too cannot escape censure. For nine years they have turned a blind eye to the suffering of their own people. Two years ago, we staged a sit-in in this park for 124 days seeking to draw the attention of the world to our plight. Our own government ignored us. It refused even to forward a petition signed by over 3000 Kenyans to the American government to demand compensation.

During the sit in, the management of this park unleashed the most inhuman violence on us bringing in dogs to urinate on us and lick our wounds and turning off water sources in order to force us out of the park. Those who died and whose names are engraved on this wall stood as silent witnesses to this cruelty on helpless people who had already suffered so long. Our departed brothers and sisters must have wept in their graves. Our government refused to respond to our pleas for protection.

But we shall not relent. We shall continue to demand our rights whether our government stands with us or chooses to turn a blind eye to our sufferings. We believe that ultimately, the truth will triumph and even if we die, our children shall continue with the struggle, and their children after them, until these governments fully account for their actions and fully compensate for the dead and injured in the same way they compensated ruined businesses and damaged buildings.

In the meantime, we will continue our struggle. We recently registered the 7th August Bomb Blast Welfare Society which will act as a focal point for our advocacy. Once established, in addition to continuing to demand for compensation, the society shall coordinate activities for bomb blast survivors and their supporters, including support group initiatives, fundraising for medical and psychosocial activities, other forms of rehabilitation, networking with other victim groups around the world and other forms of support for survivors and victims families.

We also aim to be wounded healers and shall aim to be instruments of peace in a world that is so full of hatred, jealousy and suspicion.

Finally, we would like to thank all the well – wishers who have stood with us throughout our trials over the last nine years. We will continue to count on your goodwill as we work together to build a world where there is justice, peace and prosperity for all peoples and where no group shall dominate another, and no nation shall feel the necessity of using violence to achieve political ends.

God bless Kenya, God bless Africa.

Thank you.