More than 400 victims of the 1998 Nairobi Embassy bombing have said they will sue the government for failing to compensate them 22 years after the terrorism attack occurred.
George Ngige Njoroge, the chairman of the Bomb Blast Victims Association, and Rev. Evanson Ndun'gu Gitau, who is the group's secretary-general, said they are seeking Sh850 million compensation for damages and losses that they have incurred because of the terrorism act.
Speaking to the press at the Milimani Law Courts on Tuesday, March 23, while waiting for their lawyer from Kituo cha Sheria to file the suit, said that some of them suffered physical and permanent injuries while others lost loved ones.
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They claimed they have been negotiating with the government and only receiving empty promises.
The group's Sec-Gen, Rev. Gitau, said that he lost his wife in the bomb attack and he has had to struggle for 22 years to raise his children alone.
"There are those who lost their eyes, others lost body parts. There are those who died," Rev. Gitau said.
Their lawyer, Mwariri from Kituo cha Sheria, is in isolation after his wife contracted Covid-19.
"Even if the government doesn't give us money, the Sudanese have released a lot of money to the Americans. We are closer to the Sudanese than the Americans. Why can't the government talk to the Sudan government to compensate us?" asked the Rev.
Gitau was referring to an agreement signed with the U.S in October 2020 in which the Sudan government agreed to pay US$335 million (Ksh36.8 billion) to the victims and families for its role in harbouring the al-Qaeda operatives that masterminded the twin attacks on the U.S. missions in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1998.
The twin attacks by the al-Qaeda terrorists killed 224 people in total and wounded more than 4,500.
Since 2015, the group said the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Office of the President and the Ombudsman have not written back despite numerous visits.
