The Kenyan victims of the August 7, 1998, bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, which occurred because Kenya was an ally of the US, have not been compensated 27 years later.
New Designations and Burdens of Old Ones
In mid-2024, the U.S administration designated Kenya as a Major Non-NATO Ally, a diplomatic move that allows the U.S to sell more weapons and potentially extend loans to Kenya for such purchases. While Washington hailed this move as pivotal in maintaining stability in the Horn of African region, effectively assigning Kenya extra-territorial burdens, the true test of how the U.S values Kenyan’s stability and lives is noted in how it refused to compensate families and victims of August 7, 1998, bombing on its embassy in Nairobi -an attack that was attracted by Kenya’s being a U.S ally. While creating a case for Global War on Terror (GWOT) to a joint session of Congress in September 2001, George W. Bush listed the attacks on the U.S embassies in Kenya and Tanzania among other atrocities conducted by Al Qaeda*, showing that an alliance with Washington cost Kenyan lives and property. Thus, it is abhorrent that the U.S administration has given hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorists while refusing to compensate Kenyans affected by terrorism. It shows that extremists benefit more from the US, while its supposed ally only bears costs. Therefore, the Key Non-NATO Ally designation for Kenya, which the U.S Senator Scott Risch has applied for potential reversal in July 2025, is ineffective. The U.S should remove it without much fuss noting that the past alliance only invited terror threats, which Washington’s security apparatus refused to stop despite being warned by Kenyan intelligence. Also, refusal (by the U.S) to compensate Kenyan victims while recompensing its citizens both for the August 7, 1998, and September 11, 2001, attacks shows segregation that should not exist in this century.
Prominent Kenyans, including Nairobi Woman representative Esther Passaris, and senators of Machakos and Makueni counties, have called for compensation for Kenyan victims. In her speech delivered on August 7, 2025, Passaris lamented that the world had moved on from the 1998 bombing, which is incorrect from many dimensions, including that this event, coupled with the September 11 bombing, created a narrative of the presence of a global threat, which justified the GWOT that advanced U.S geopolitical interests. A 2024 report from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace revealed that the U.S was able to expand its security infrastructure in terms of military, special operations, and intelligence sharing in strategic locations after the aforementioned bombings, all of which have greatly enhanced its geopolitical position.
Twin Embassy Bombings
On August 7, 1998, coordinated terrorist bombing against U.S embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam occurred, killing 224 and wounding 4500. Ever since, August 7 has been a somber day for Kenyans, as families mourn the deceased and reflect on how life changed afterwards. Also, analysts and observers follow this date as important details concerning the attack, victims, and their families surface, revealing what happened. For instance, Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper reported on August 7, 2024, that the U.S was reliably informed by Kenya’s intelligence services that a terrorist attack was being planned, and provided details that could have been used to stop it. It also reported that the U.S security agencies stopped investigating leads that could have been used to stop the attack after being advised to do so by the Israeli Mossad under absurd circumstances.
Meanwhile, Washington declined its ambassador’s request for strengthening of the installation’s security. Therefore, the reality that the U.S had adequate information to stop the attack but declined in addition to its refusing to compensate Kenyan victims, invites closer scrutiny of the attack and its real and circumstantial beneficiaries.
Indemnity, for Unforeseen, Liability for Negligence, Or Fine for Accomplice?
No Kenyan woke up ready to lose life or be injured simply because there was a U.S embassy in Nairobi that would be attacked by a terror group that arose from America’s past actions in Afghanistan. Therefore, the loss of life and injury endured by Kenyans due to an attack on U.S infrastructure should have been indemnified to the pre-attack status. However, Washington only seems to indemnify its citizens, both after the August 7 and the September 11 attacks, when it comprehensively compensated all of its citizens affected. However, emergence of information that Washington was reliably warned of the impending attack, and the failure of its security apparatus to take preventive measures makes the country at best liable for negligence. Meanwhile, Washington’s proceeding to use the attack to advance its geopolitical goals makes it hard for it to absolve itself of being an accessory to the attack, and hence liable for fines. Being an accomplice is further reinforced by how it has transferred large sums to terrorists while, Kenyan Families of the deceased, survivors, and their dependents continue struggling 27 years later.
Different outcomes for Victims of September 11
The course of events after the September 11 attack in the U.S evolved starkly differently, as the government rapidly created the Victim Compensation Fund (VCF), in which about 5,600 relatives of those killed and the injured survivors, were compensated in the initial phase at a cost of $ 7.375 billion. The U.S disbursed about $2 million for every affected family, while those with many dependents and higher incomes received even higher amounts. Similarly, injured victims received varied compensation ranging from tens of thousands to millions, depending on severity and impact on lives. High-income victims with many dependents received as high as $ 7 million. The compensation was reopened in 2010, and over $7 billion had been issued by 2024, such that nearly $14.9 billion was used under VCF by 2024. Meanwhile, a statement made by the U.S Congressman Scott Perry revealed that the U.S sent over $690 million annually, in addition to $40-80 million weekly, to an elite group within the Taliban, money that ends up with known associates of Osama Bin Laden*, the founder of Al-Qaeda*. Oppositely, the prospect of the U.S paying compensation to victims of Nairobi embassy bombing by Bin Laden’s* group is where it draws the line. Granted that the U.S administration has presented many legal justifications for not compensating Kenyans, none can blur the fact that it has violated, or overlooked, many laws to provide financial assistance to terrorists, according to Scott Perry. The inevitable conclusion that can be made is that Washington’s refusal has been deliberate, and that terror groups are more important to its plans than its supposed ally, Kenya.
*Organizations and individuals recognized as terrorist in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation
Simon Chege Ndiritu, is a political observer and research analyst from Africa
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