Bomb raid survivors set to miss out on Sh430 billion payout

Magdalene Munyoo, who lost her father Phillip Kioko Munyoo in the 1998 Nairobi bomb blast, speaks during the 21st anniversary of the attack at the Bomb Blast Memorial Park, August 7, 2019. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The blast in Nairobi was one of two nearly simultaneous attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The attack, carried out by terrorist Osama bin Laden, claimed more than 200 lives and left over 5,000 injured.
  • During a gathering on Tuesday to mark 21 years since the attack on the US embassy, they complained that the government had forgotten about them.
  • Ellen Adhiambo, who sustained injuries that rendered her unable to walk, noted that she cannot work.
  • However, survivor Bernard Njoroge said that those affected by the blast should try and move on instead of calling on the government to give them money.

Survivors and relatives of the victims of the August 1998 US Embassy bombing in Nairobi yesterday told of pain and suffering 21 years later, but their anguish could be worsened by revelations that most of them will miss out on a Sh430 billion payout in coming months.

The American attorneys of casualties who were employees and contractors of the US Embassy in Nairobi were optimistic that the US Supreme Court will rule to award a total of $4.3 billion (Sh430 billion) to them and their counterparts in Tanzania, where terrorists also staged a simultaneous attack on August 7, 1998.

MEDICATION

That means survivors who were not working for the US embassy, who were the majority of the casualties, will not benefit from the compensation should it come.

Ruling in June

 The highest court in the United States agreed last month to take up the matter beginning October, and a ruling on whether the huge payment must be made by the government of Sudan will be handed down sometime before June next year.

In Nairobi yesterday, 60-year-old Ellen Adhiambo, one of the victims, sat at the well-manicured lawns of the August 7 Memorial Park, lost in thought, wondering what this new development means for her. Because she was not working for the US Embassy, she, like hundreds of other Kenyans, has no hope of ever being compensated for her injuries and loss by American courts.

She has not been able to work again since she was injured in the explosion and says she needs the money to survive.

“My arm was injured in the blast. I cannot even wash clothes for people to earn a living. My medication is equally expensive and I still have to eat and pay rent. How am I supposed to survive with no job and no money? The government needs to help us,” she lamented.

As part of the office support staff at Barclays Bank, then situated on the fourth floor of the Co-operative Bank building, Ms Adhiambo was hard at work, preparing tea for employees, when the attackers struck on the fateful morning.

Ellen Adhiambo points at slain terrorist Osama bin Laden on a painting displayed at the Bomb Blast Memorial Park in Nairobi on August 7, 2019, during a memorial to mark 21 years since the attack on the US embassy. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

 “It was about midmorning and I was going about my business when, all of a sudden, I heard a loud bang. The building started shaking. The first instinct was to run but there was confusion all over. People were crying for help, the lifts were not functioning and the offices and corridors were covered in blood,” she said.

“We still made our way from the building somehow. I really can’t explain how. But as I was running out, debris from the building kept falling on us. At some point I felt as if I had swallowed a piece of glass. I tripped, fell, hit my head on a pavement and blacked out. I later found myself in hospital, where I stayed for two years receiving specialised treatment.”

When she finally left the care of doctors, she found that her Kibera home had long been looted and left bare. She had nothing. She went back to the hospital, where she got help from a few well-wishers and Barclays Bank.

Mr Simon Maina, a milk vendor at the time, said he was doing his rounds along the streets next to the blast site when the bomb went off. He, too, will miss out on the compensation.

“I was tossed several metres by the force of the blast, in the process injuring my hand. I lost my ability to hear too,” explained the father of four.

Ms Elizabeth Gitonga, who also survived the blast, asked the government to help them. “If it’s the word ‘compensation’ that is the problem, then we can do away with it. We are just asking the government to give us something small to help us, just like what (former President) Moi did back then.”

As they pushed for the compensation, tens of thousands of kilometres away in the US, the issue of contention remained the lower court’s rejection in 2017 of the claim by other victims and family members that they are entitled to $4.3 billion in punitive damages from Sudan.

Victims and survivors of the August 7, 1998 US embassy bombing in Nairobi lay a wreath during a memorial gathering on August 7, 2019. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

US courts have already agreed that Sudan is liable for a separate and additional $5.9 billion (Sh590 billion) in compensatory damage payments to some of the Kenyans and Tanzanians harmed in the US Embassy attacks.

“If there was ever a case where punitive damages should be upheld, it is this one,” Mr William Wheeler, a US attorney involved in the lawsuit, said on Tuesday.

Applied retroactively

The lower court’s ruling against payment of punitive damages reflected its view that a 2008 change in US law allowing for such payments could not be applied retroactively to the embassy bombings that had occurred 10 years earlier.

Under US law, compensatory damages are meant to compensate victims for their losses, while punitive damages serve as punishments levied against parties responsible for causing the losses.

A group of 570 individuals are plaintiffs in the case to be heard by the US Supreme Court. More than 300 of them are Kenyan citizens, 80 are Tanzanians and the remainder are African victims of the attacks who subsequently gained US citizenship.

224 KILLED

All of those covered by this case were employed either by the US embassies in Nairobi or Dar es Salaam, or were working for private contractors who did business with the embassies.

None of the potential total of $10.2 billion (about Sh1 trillion) in damages will be available to any of the thousands of Kenyans or Tanzanians who were harmed by the attacks but who were not employed by the US embassies or contractors. Litigation involving that large group of victims has been stalled in the US court system for several years and is not expected to reach a settlement anytime soon.

The majority of the 224 people killed in the twin attacks on August 7, 1998, were not connected to the embassies or to contractors. Most of the 214 people killed in Nairobi were passers-by or were working in nearby buildings, as were several hundred Kenyans who suffered injuries – some grievous – when the bombs exploded.

Suits seeking compensation were filed in the US against Sudan because its former government had harboured Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda operatives while the embassy attacks were being planned. “I think Sudan is going to have to pay,” Mr Gavriel Mairone, a Chicago-based attorney for Kenyan and Tanzanian embassy or contractor employees, said on Tuesday.

TERROR SPONSORS

Mr Mairone, who specialises in representing victims of terrorist attacks, noted that Sudan must make court-ordered payments as one of the conditions for the country’s removal from the list of states that sponsor terrorism. A significant number of Kenyan and Tanzanian embassy or contractor employees have already shared substantially in a $1.1 billion (Sh100 billion) payout from a special US fund established to compensate victims of terror attacks. They received the awards in 2017, Mr Mairone noted. Money for the special fund comes from penalties levied against companies or individuals who violate US sanctions imposed on countries designated as terrorism sponsors.

Mr Mairone said he would not specify the amounts paid to Kenyans from the fund because such information “could put our clients’ lives in danger”.

The attorney suggested that Kenyans benefiting from payments that “have totally changed their lives” could potentially become “targets for criminals”.

Another group of some 2,400 Kenyan family members of US embassy or contractor employees recently began pursuing separate monetary judgements against the government of Iran.

Mr Mairone said Iran may have provided the explosives that destroyed the US embassy.