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{
    "id": 1262296,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1262296/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 381,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Osotsi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13588,
        "legal_name": "Osotsi Godfrey Otieno",
        "slug": "osotsi-godfrey-otieno"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for the opportunity to second this Motion. I want to start by thanking the Senator for Machakos, Sen. Kavindu Muthama for coming up with this very important Motion; a Motion to establish an Ad Hoc Committee for the compensation to the Kenyan victims of the 1998 bombing of the United States of America Embassy here in Nairobi. Madam Temporary Speaker, this Motion is long overdue. This particular event happened more than 24 years ago. Can you imagine, when the disaster happened, I was still in school? I have now finished school, worked, done business, and joined politics. You can see that 24 years is a long time. This Motion is therefore long overdue. It is one of those things that Parliament should have dispensed with as soon as the event happened. The bombing of the US Embassy in 1998 was a major scare in this country. I remember I was then a student at Strathmore College. We heard a huge bang on the other side of Nairobi, only to learn that a number of Kenyans had died. To be precise, 213 Kenyans and 12 Americans died and about 5,000 people were injured. Some of them were just passing-by while others were in matatus and private cars. That particular disaster changed this country. It also changed the world. Actually, Kenyans used to think that terrorists only targeted the Western World and not African countries. That event awakened us. It was not just in Kenya. If you remember, it also happened in Dar-es-Salaam. Although the terrorists were targeting the US Embassy, it is Kenyans who suffered more than Americans. If you look at the numbers, about 213 Kenyans died, whereas only 12 Americans died. That tells you a lot. Kenya had to carry the burden of terrorism that was targeted on America. The terrorists were not targeting Kenyans but Americans. That being the case, it is only proper and important that Kenyans who suffered, died and were harmed are compensated. I was talking to the Mover of this Motion and she told me that at one time, she talked to the people in United States of America (USA), who told her the only reason Kenyans have not been compensated is because the Parliament of this country has not requested America for compensation. Therefore, if this Motion is passed, it means we will make a formal request to America, through the Senate, which is an institution that represents the people of Kenya, that people who died in that disaster need to be compensated."
}