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"speaker_name": "Sen. Chute",
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"legal_name": "Chute Mohamed Said",
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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. Let me also take this opportunity to thank Sen. Kavindu Muthama for chairing this Committee. She has passionately followed this matter up, and sometimes felt like crying. I am also in that Committee, and when the victims came before us to narrate to us what they went through, all the Members who were there cried because it was not something that we could stomach. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on 7th August, 1998, I was in Addis Ababa on a business trip. I left my hotel room early morning at around 7.00 a.m. When I came back to the hotel at 1.00 p.m., I switched on the television. The first thing I saw was a bombing in Nairobi and so many people died. It was reported that 212 Kenyans had died that same day and 4,000 others were injured, maimed and suffered. It cannot be narrated by ordinary people, unless you have gone through what they went through. Article 26 of our Constitution is very clear that every person has a right to life, whether you are an American, Kenyan or any other citizen living in this country. In America when other people die, they say it is collateral damage. Lives are being called collateral damage. The issue that happened that day, it is not something Americans did not know. They had enough intelligence. They knew very well that something would happen soon to the embassy. They did not care because they lost about 56 contractors and American government employees. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this issue of calling human beings “collateral damage” must stop. Why are we asking for compensation? The reason is very simple, the American embassy is like the American country itself. When they attacked the embassy, they attacked the Americans. They did not care how many Kenyans would die. There is a programme in Sudan where money was set aside to compensate victims of the bomb blast in both Tanzania and Kenya. Some people were compensated, but Kenyans are not compensated. When we sat in that Committee, we came to know that there are those who died and others who did not die. We are sorry about those who died. However, those who did not die got injuries that are completely unrepairable. These people suffered, were humiliated and lost their jobs. Some lost their mothers and fathers. Some very young children could not survive because they lost parents. Our people, the Kenyans, suffered both physical and emotional damage. If you were in that Committee, you would be shocked. We cried. We had the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Hon. Nakhumicha before us and the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, Hon. Mutua and Hon. Mudavadi. In fact, we visited his office. When Hon. Nakhumicha was there, those people narrated the story of the suffering they went The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}