East Africa terror victims ‘forgotten’
Kenyans and Tanzanians injured and killed in attacks on American embassies won’t get the same compensation as US citizens — if any
Atweet from United States President Donald Trump last week confirming his government’s intention to remove Sudan from the state sponsors of terrorism list reinvigorated optimism in the streets of Khartoum and relief for some victims of the 1998 attacks on US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.
The victims would finally get some justice and millions of dollars in compensation. But not everyone took the news well, especially a group of Kenyans who say they have been ignored for two decades.
Sudan’s new government agreed to pay $335-million to the victims and their families and unofficially normalise relations with Israel, a prerequisite set by the Trump administration to get off the state sponsor of terrorism list, which prevented the country from getting international financing.
This compensation is to be shared among a few US citizens and contractors from countries other than the US, Kenya and Tanzania.
Of the 224 people who died, 12 were Americans and 44 were embassy staff who were hired locally. Ten Americans and 11 locally hired employees were among the more than 5 000 people who were injured.
This latter group is opposed to the deal, calling it “discriminatory”. The deal will pay victims who have since received naturalised US citizenship considerably lower compensation, equivalent to 8% of those who were American at the time of the attack. Some Americans would receive as much as $10-million.
‘Betrayal of justice’
“We want a resolution but cannot accept one that betrays so many US embassy victims and the most basic principles of American justice,” Doreen Oport, an American employee of the US embassy who was badly burned in the 1998 attack, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Sudan’s offer intentionally discriminates against victims with the least political clout.”
Even worse, the families of Kenyans and Tanzanians — who make up the bulk of the 224 people who died — are not part of this deal. They say they have been left out of all compensation negotiations and deals, ignored for the past two decades including by their own governments.
Kenyan Moraa Bichage, whose mother Rosemary Bichage was injured in the blast, feels “totally left out. I am bitter about this compensation story because Kenyans have the short end of the stick. Kenyans and Tanzanians have been forgotten, no one has ever reached out to us.”
Rosemary Bichage sustained 75% burns, was in a coma for months and had to relearn how to speak, walk, read and write. She later died of cancer.
Trump tweeted: “Great news! New government of Sudan, which is making great progress, agreed to pay $335 million to US terror victims and families. Once deposited, I will lift Sudan from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. At long last, justice for the American people and big step for Sudan!”
Linda Musumba, a Kenyan lawyer suing the Kenyan government on behalf of 17 Kenyan victims of the attacks, said: “There will be no basis for Sudan to compensate only US nationals or Kenyans contracted to the US embassy.
“The approach we took is that the state has a responsibility towards its citizens, the same way the US took responsibility for its citizens, came up with the relevant legislation, and went ahead to ensure its citizens were able to get compensation. Our approach in court is to seek the same.”
The Kenyan government did not have the resources, expertise and manpower to carry out an investigation so it left it to the US government to undertake the elements of seeking justice, but it was not clear that justice sought would be for all. “I think that element was not clear,” Musumba said.
The Kenyan government says it worked in partnership with the FBI.
The US sent about 900 FBI agents and other security officials to East Africa in the aftermath of the attacks to carry out investigations. More than 20 people were charged with the bombings. Many, including Osama bin Laden, were killed, according to the FBI.
Trump’s administration is seeking quick justice for Americans and the US government has made considerable efforts to support its citizens. A geopolitical peace deal with Israel and elections back home may have a role to play, too.
In May this year, the US supreme court ruled that Sudan could be held liable for punitive and compensatory damages of $10-billion for the bombings, stating that the country under Omar al- Bashir had knowingly provided al-qaeda and Osama bin Laden with material support used for the attacks.
Sudan is hoping to get legal peace in the near future.
Compensation
The US legislators also came up with the Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund in 2015, which has paid more than a billion dollars to Americans, including those in the East African attacks.
Kenya similarly legislated the Prevention of Terrorism Act and created a Compensation of Victims of Terror Fund in 2012, but it has not been funded, nor has it set a time frame for its population.
The only assistance Kenyans received were donations. Then Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi set up the National Bomb Blast Committee, led by attorney general Charles Njonjo, to collect donations on behalf of the victims to assist with emergency expenses such as funerals and school fees. The committee disbursed about 270-million shillings (about $2.4-million at today’s exchange rate) in cash to nearly 3 000 victims.
“This was just a committee and cannot be said to be an official government response, because it was really just receiving funds to provide that first aid. Government has not had a formal set-up to compensate these persons in any way,” Musumba said.
The US Agency for International Development also set up a fund for two years to provide emergency assistance such as school fees and medical treatment for victims like Rosemary Bichage, who received treatment in the US.
Lives disrupted
Twenty-two years later, many are living in poverty, their lives forever affected by the bomb blast, said Ali Mwadama, who was injured in it. He is the chairperson of the Bomb Blast Association in Kenya and accuses the Kenyan government of abandoning the victims of the blast. “They even stopped showing up at the memorial,” he said.
Kenya has, over the past two and a half decades, been rocked by terror attacks. This week, a court in Kenya issued sentences to people convicted of aiding the 2013 Westgate four-day al-shabaab siege in which 67 people died and hundreds were injured.
The Kenyan government fears that any compensation would set a precedent for the many thousands of victims of terror, money it does not have.
The government, in response to a petition, through the ministry of interior and coordination of the government, called the elapsed time unreasonable and prejudicial to a respondent’s defence.
“This matter has been under review by the ministry of foreign affairs as it relates the relationship between the three countries,” the attorney general’s office said in response to questions.
Kenya has paid compensation to victims, including those of the 2007 post-election violence and of bandit attacks in Kerio Valley in 2017, for the loss of lives, livestock and destruction of property.
The case is set down for December in Kenya’s high court.
“I’m slowly composing my tweet to reply to him,” Bichage joked, after seeing Trump’s post.
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