Survivors remember dark day

Mr George Mimba’s work schedule for Friday, August 7, 1998, was quite busy.

The systems manager at the American embassy in Nairobi had left home early, having bid goodbye to his wife as he was going to travel to Ghana to attend a seminar for information technology managers from various American embassies in Africa.

“I normally don’t use my car when travelling abroad, so I had called for a driver to pick me up,” he recalls.

Once at the embassy he went straight to process his travel allowance.

“The queue was long as many of the employees were preparing to travel for the weekend,” he adds, but a colleague who knew he was travelling outside the country hastened the process.

Once he was through he went to his office to send an e-mail. Then came the first blast, which did not bother him much.

“When the first bomb blew, I first thought it was the aftershocks of an earth tremor somewhere in Rift Valley,” says Mr Mimba.

But he started walking out of his office towards the financial management centre. He had only moved a short distance when the big bang came.

“I thought the world had come to an end. I was beyond my normal senses,” he says.

The ceiling, walls and windows came tumbling down. Within no time the room was full of black choking smoke and soon the building became pitch dark.

“I was buried in the debris but luckily I did not lose consciousness. I heard people crying and I thought the whole world had come to an end,” Mr Mimba says.

At that moment Mr Mimba said a short prayer. All he asked was for God to ensure that he does not die in the building.

After a few minutes he felt a breeze coming from one side of the building and crawled towards that direction. After struggling for about five minutes he opened his eyes and found himself at one edge of the building, which had a gaping hole, which was once covered by windows.

Mr Mimba was on the second floor and could see vehicles burning. However, the scene did not deter his spirit to survive. He threw himself down and landed in the car park.
Luckily, he did not break any bones, attributing his good fortune to a miracle.

At that time Mr Mimba’s colleague, Mr Tobias Otieno, who works at the Foreign Commercial Service, was also struggling to get out.

“I was in the office doing my normal work when at 10am I heard the first blast. We at first thought it was a tyre burst,” said Mr Otieno.

Since the embassy was situated near one of Nairobi’s busiest junctions, the employees were used to the sound of tyre bursts.

What made Mr Otieno realise that things were not right was the second blast that tore through the embassy building.

“I did not know where I was and lost consciousness for a few minutes,” Mr Otieno recalls. Unfortunately, the blast had blinded the US embassy employee. “I heard people crying for help and I also called out.”

Luckily an American officer working at the embassy who survived the tragedy heard Mr Otieno’s cries and removed him from the rubble, leading him out of the building. Mr Otieno was taken to Nairobi Hospital, where he was admitted.

In the meantime, Mr Mimba, who had jumped over the embassy perimeter wall, decided to go back and help colleagues.