Unknown Names

The above picture is of the wall that commemorates all the victims of the 1998 attack on US embassy in Nairobi. The bottom picture is of the inscription in the center of the wall.

I've been down in Nairobi the last couple of days. I went down there just to see the city and because I didn't have much to do in Nakuru. While down in Nairob,i I went on a walk through the town center with Wambua, he's my guide/Kenyan friend. While walking, we turned the corner and to the right was a very tall iron fence that was covered with vegetation. He turned around and said, "Do you want to go in?" I didn't know what it was and he realized this from the puzzled look on my face. He then said, "It's where the American embassy stood before it was destroyed in 1998."

There in the middle of downtown Nairobi, hidden behind an overgrown fence is the site of the August 7th, 1998 attack on the US embassy. More than 200 people had died there when terrorists drove a car bomb down into the below ground parking structure and detonated the charge, which killed so many. Inside the gates, there is a sculpture that was created from material that was found after the blast - wheels of an office chair, the fan of an air duct, and other easily recognizable objects. Then to the right of that is a huge wall with all the names of that fateful day's victims inscribed on it.

I don't know much of the history of this attack, as I was only twelve when it happened, so I don't know the background of why the attack was carried out or what the purpose of it was suppose to be on an international scale, but obviously it was aimed at the US government. The saddest thing about this terrible crime was that nearly all the names on that wall were those of Kenyans. So maybe the attack was carried out against the US, but those that paid the ultimate price were Kenyan.

While I stood there looking over the 200+ names, a young boy and his father walked up to the wall. The father, with the boy in hand, went straight for the first column on the left and pointed to the second name from the top. He leaned down, picked the boy up, and while pointing at the name he whispered something in the boy's ear. I have no idea what he said, but from what I saw I feel very sure that the name was some relation to the young child. Unfortunately, the attack was nearly eleven years ago and the boy could not of been older than ten. The name, to him, was unknown and unrecognizable - just a grouping of etched letters in a wall in downtown Nairobi.

It's tragic to think how quickly life can be robbed from a person, and though it happens all the time, seeing a reminder like this is acts like a wake up call.

My next post won't be this sad, but I wanted to share this experience.

Take care.

Jordan