Memories of a mother’s tragic end in bomb attack
Posted by African Press International on August 9, 2008
By Isaac Ongiri
She was the most memorable casualty of the August 7, 1998 bomb blast that shook Nairobi to its core.
Ms Rose Wanjiku touched the hearts of both local and Israeli rescuers who painstakingly tried to remove her from the rubbles of then US embassy. She, however, died on the fourth day. Rose’s painful death shook the entire nation.
Before then, she had become the symbol of the brave fight which victims of the blast had put up prior to being fished out of the rubble, or gave up the struggle. Despite the horrible scenes, Rose held on for four days, with the Israeli commandos convinced they could reach her alive.
Dwindled hopes
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| Ms Diana Wangari lays a wreath. Her mother died in the 1998 bomb attack on the US embassy. |
Stories of Rose splashed across the world held the nation in shock, as rescuers tried in vain to pull her out. When she finally gave up on her life, hopes of retrieving any other victims alive instantly dwindled.
Diana Wangari, the then nine-year-old daughter of the gallant single mother was too young to understand the misfortune that snapped life out of a woman she knew too shortly as her mum.
Ten years down the line and now 17, Diana is yet to heal and forever close the tragic chapter of her mother’s death.
“What I now know is that she is dead, but what I have never understood is what she did to deserve such a painful death,” she toldThe Standard.
Memories of her mother perishing under the rubble send shivers down her spine. She has never recovered from the day a story was told of how her mother died.
Now a Form Three student at Kambaa High School, Diana has been living with relatives after her two brothers, Philip Macharia and James Mwangi were awarded scholarships to study in the US.
Hope Africa, a non-governmental organisation headed by Mrs Sheila Kibuka, helped the two brothers out as relatives took charge of the young Diana.
Mwangi got a job in California where he has been living after completing his education, while Macharia has joined the British military.
When she visited the scene where her mother spent three days under the debris of the collapsed Ufundi Co-operative house, she could not hide the rage in her.
“I can forgive, but I can never forget,” she told The Standard.
Macharia and Mwangi had joined other relatives in the rubble, where the rescuers would facilitate communication between them and their mother.
For three days, the two boys spoke to their mother, whose condition deteriorated by the day. On the fourth day, the two could not speak to her anymore. They knew the worst had finally happened — Rose was dead.
Breadwinner
They could not imagine life without their mother, who was the family’s sole breadwinner. She worked as a messenger with Merchant Co-operative Bank.
Hope Africa now intends to acquire a scholarship for Diana, who expects to write her final examinations next year.
“We are dedicated to helping her. We want to turn the pain in her story into life, that there must be hope even after that deadly attack,” Kibuka adds.
She is now calling on the US Government to support orphans of the August 7 bomb blast.
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API/Source.standard.ke
