MaurineTheuri
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Civil servant Diana Mutisya is devastated that she will not be receiving the same compensation as Americans injured in al-Qaeda’s bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, 22 years ago.
She was in a bank next to the embassy in Nairobi fixing a payroll problem when the two explosions hit.
The four other people in the room with her died. She went into a coma and was flown to South Africa for treatment where 15 metal plates were used to hold her spinal cord together.
Last month, it was announced that Sudan had paid $335 million (Sh36.1 billion) as compensation for victims of past attacks against US targets.
But the deal — a key condition set by the US for Sudan to be removed from its list of state sponsors of terrorism — only includes punitive damages to families of victims or those injured who are US nationals or US embassy workers.
Therapy costs
The majority of the estimated 5,000 people injured in the twin bombings of the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on August 7, 1998 will not get any money. Neither will the families of the more than 200 locals who died in the blasts.
“We were affected because of the enmity between the US and the attackers. They should give us consideration,” Mutisya told the BBC.
“Americans cannot be superior, we are all human beings… If anything we’re innocent, this thing happened because of them.
They [the attackers] were targeting the American embassy where they knew American citizens were.”
It has taken the 60-year-old civil servant many years to get over that day but she will never fully recover. One of her lungs no longer functions.
Today she can walk, but not for long and she has to use an orthopaedic chair while at work.
“I’m spending over Sh80,000 monthly on therapy,” she said.
Each American victim or family of the US embassy attacks will receive $3 million (Sh323.4 million), while locally employed staff will receive $400,000 (Sh43.1 million), the US media reported.
Sudan admitted culpability in the attacks after being accused of giving al-Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden technical and financial support in the 1990s.
Its removal from a US blacklist allows the country get debt relief, foreign investment and loans from international financial institutions.
US State Secretary Antony Blinken said the payment would “start a new chapter” in relations between the US and Sudan.
But for many there is no new chapter – despite the US saying it has given millions of dollars in humanitarian assistance to Kenyan victims of the embassy bombing.
According to the spokesman of the Kenyan victims’ association, most of this money did not reach them.
“I was involved in pushing the US Congress to release $47 million (Sh5 billion) to Kenyans,” Douglas Sidialo, who lost his sight after the blast, told the BBC.
“We thought this money was coming to help the victims, but I will tell you over 95 per cent of this money went towards the rehabilitation of buildings. It never went towards rehabilitation of lives.”
He agrees the injured did initially get medical funding and counselling: “But this was for only three years from 1999 to 2002. After that the Americans packed up their bags and left.”
The disappointment is more heartfelt because Joe Biden is now US president.
As vice-president, he visited Kenya in 2010, meeting some of the victims at a memorial park in Nairobi built where the embassy once stood – and the issue of compensation was raised.
“I held his hand for like a minute. I raised these issues with Joe Biden, looking straight in his eye.
He said they would look into the issue. It has taken us over 10 years now, we have never heard anything from him,” Sidialo said.
“We want equal treatment just like Americans. We are not lesser beings.”
Compensation demand
The US state department insists it has done all it can, telling the BBC: “In the years immediately following the blast, the US government provided support and assistance to help Kenyans affected by the bombing to recover from the attacks and resume their lives.
“This support included medical care, counselling, school fees, rehabilitation therapy, vocational training, and recovery assistance to businesses.
But survivors, whose struggles are widely documented, want justice.
Some of them – about 500 – want compensation and their initial target is the Kenyan government, which they accuse of failing to seek justice for its citizens.
Kenya’s foreign affairs ministry has not responded to a request to comment on the allegations that it is refusing to meet victims about the issue.
The group has also set their sights on the US, Sudan and Iran, which their lawyers say is also cited in several reports as giving support to al-Qaeda.
“We shall continue to pursue justice locally and in international forums because we feel we have been unfairly treated,” said Stanley Mutuma, a victim who lost his sight in the blast.
They have partnered with Kituo Cha Sheria, a non-profit organisation that assists people on public interest litigation.
The group intends to file a petition at Kenya’s High Court and talks are also ongoing to file a case in US court.
“Since this [the embassy] was their property, they have the moral obligation to ensure all the victims are considered for compensation,” Mutuma said.
For Mutisya it is important to continue the fight before anymore survivors die.
“The incident is just like yesterday because we live with the pains. We’re nursing a lot of wounds, so we’re limited in doing our capability [to fight]. But we’ll still push for justice even if we are left a few of us.” —BBC