Remembering East Africa's terror

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Three survivors of the almost simultaneous terrorist attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania 10 years ago recall their memories and tell how their lives were changed.

Click on the links below to read their memories of that fateful day:

Moses Kinyua, Nairobi, Kenya<a class="bodl" href="#moses">"I had to learn to accept that what happened, happened"</a>

Stanley Mutuma, Nairobi, Kenya<a class="bodl" href="#stanley">"I don't want to remember what happened. It is too hard for me"</a>

Tina Mdobiru, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania<a class="bodl" href="#tina">"It was a sound that went through me, I couldn't stop it"</a>

MOSES KINYUA, NAIROBI, KENYA

The day that the bombing happened, it is unfortunate because I saw the people that did it; the bombers, they were by the gate, but at that time I never knew that they were terrorists and what they were going to do.

I thought they were just some contractors when I parked my car at the embassy. I used to work as a driver and so was always coming and going.

I had to go and pick up a laptop from the second floor. It was when I was walking down a corridor on the second floor that it went off.

I don't remember anything. I just remember being trapped under the rubble of the embassy.

'Changed'

Al-Qaeda were responsible for the bombings 10 years ago

I was in a coma for about three weeks apparently but I don't remember. I only remember waking up and being told I was in a hospital in Germany.

I did not know where I was or what was wrong with me.

After four days I was moved to a special hospital in the US and I stayed there for six months. My brother and my wife were with me all that time.

What happened that day changed everything for me.

My state of health is not very good because of how the bombing affected me. I have problems with my heart, my lungs and my brain.

'All plastic'

The pain I experience is real bad. My brain is damaged - the nerves in my brain were wounded by the blast and they try to penetrate my skin and re-route themselves but cannot because of all the prosthetics and broken bones in my head and so it is very painful.

I go to London every year to have neurological surgery to deaden the nerve ends to control my pain in my head.

My head was broken into many pieces on the top side and broken into four pieces below and around my jaw. I had reconstruction work done to join my head together again but my left forehead is all plastic now because I lost it at the bomb site.

I used to work for the embassy and so I am lucky that all my medical needs are taken care of by the United States government. I was retired on medical grounds but they continue to pay my salary and for all my hospital bills and related travel expenses and medication.

My biggest problem is that I cannot work anymore. I cannot think much because that part of my brain does not work anymore. I cannot walk very far at all and always have to stay in controlled positions. My sight is no longer clear because I lost one eye and my other is permanently damaged.

'Very bitter'

My life has been changed beyond belief. Life is very hard for me nowadays.

Mostly I spend my days at home. My four sons are a comfort to me but because they're older now they're rarely at home.

Even these days my sons have counselling because of how they have been affected as witnesses of my pain. They have had to grow up watching me in agony. When it is bad, I scream out. I cannot control myself.

I too had counselling. I had to learn to accept that what happened, happened. And I can change nothing. And so I must take it easy.

I used to have a lot of anger, especially when I had to attend the trial in New York and realised that the people who did all this to me and everyone else, they do not even care. That was very bitter.

But my anger has gone now. If you keep the anger in you then you cannot touch the hearts of other people.

It is over now.

But one cannot forget.

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STANLEY MUTUMA, NAIROBI, KENYA

That day was just another day - a normal day in the August school holidays. I was passing through town in a matatu [commuter bus] and it was quite jam-packed but that isn't unusual in Nairobi.

But then there was a noise - a banging. People were looking out of the window to see where it was coming from. It was in the direction of the embassy.

The first bang was like a gunshot, just a small noise, but then there was the second one, which was the blast itself. And that's when I burst out of the matatu I think.

That was the bombing.

'It was chaotic'

The next thing I remember was finding myself in the hospital.

More than 220 people were killed and 5,000 injured

There was about 30 minutes during the intervening period that I don't recall anything about.

Of course in the hospital, it was chaotic. There was confusion, there was panic. People didn't know what had happened.

Later we were told that it had been a terrorist attack.

My parents found me after two days. They then took me to Kikuyu Hospital and I had an operation on my eyes. They recommended that I went for surgery abroad and so that's what we did.

'With time, one copes'

After a while my sight came back. My injury was mainly scarred eye tissue and the cornea but they managed to restore most of my sight.

When I returned to Kenya I had about 80% of my sight but then subsequently some complications arose and my sight is very poor now.

I moved schools to a rehabilitation school so I could learn how to deal with my challenges and get on with my life.

It was very difficult because I never believed that I wouldn't be able to see fully again.

The change was not an easy one but with time, one copes.

My family have been very supportive and many, many people too.

But I have picked up. I am at university studying law and doing well but I still have challenges.

Technology has really helped me - my computer and my phone have special software to speak to me. It helps me get along.

It's 10 years since it happened and with any tragedy I think people should be encouraged to pick up the pieces and carry on with faith.

I don't want to remember what happened. I cannot go to the memorial sight. I don't want to go. It is too hard for me.

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TINA MDOBIRU, DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA

It was just a normal day: I got up and went to work. I had quite a few things to do and so was in my office... until just before 1000 hours [local time] when I had to go to a meeting. I passed my boss in the corridor.

During the meeting I remember thinking to myself how tired I was. I was eight months pregnant and was thinking whether I should take leave soon or try wait and keep working until even closer to my due date.

I remember I was facing a window.

At about 1030 hours I saw what I thought to be a flash of lightning for a split second. Something lit up and then it closed again and then I heard BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

I always will remember that sound because I thought that an explosion was something instant but it wasn't. The sound seemed to go on for 10 seconds. The sound was so big that it seemed to go through my chest and come out of my back.

'Total silence'

I remember asking myself: "Am I dreaming? If I am dreaming, why aren't I waking up? Why isn't this sound stopping?"

AFRICA HAVE YOUR SAY <a class="" href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=5205&edition=1">Should survivors forgive terrorists?</a>

The sound, it was so painful. It was a horrible, horrible thing.

It was a sound that went through me, I couldn't stop it. It was huge.

I was in the middle of something.

It was deafening. And it made me deaf in my left ear for six months after.

Afterwards there was total silence.

There was glass on the floor. Everything was just glass - the whole room was just glass. There were no computers, there were no couches.

'We had to get out'

People were bleeding, very heavily. People couldn't see because of the blood.

I remember one guy we were with... he started to panic. The deputy ambassador was telling us to get on the floor but this guy was getting up and moving around as if he was lost.

Outside we could hear sounds - like shooting.

We didn't know at the time that it was actually the tyres on our cars popping. They popped because of the heat from the bomb but we thought someone was shooting.

But then someone said about the electricity wires, because it started smoking in the room. The walls had caved in and we were scared that everything would catch fire so we had to get out.

It took us about 10 minutes because we'd go down corridors but then find that the walls had collapsed and so we couldn't go that way. And so we had to keep trying different routes but then someone came and showed us a way out.

We climbed over concrete and cement. We were all holding hands because some people couldn't see because of all the blood on their faces and so we helped one another.

'A miracle'

Finally we got out of the building.

I thank God that I wasn't injured.

What happened to me was a miracle because the extent of damage to the room we were in, we shouldn't have been able to walk away.

My dress was torn from the glass. The glass on my watch was broken. My hair was in braids and they were full of glass.

But nothing touched me. I only have one small scar on my right hand. My baby didn't even move.

At the hospital I was checked and my baby inside of me but we were alright. For a precautionary measure they gave me a tetanus injection and they told me that if anything felt wrong that I must come back but nothing happened.

After a month and two weeks I gave birth to a healthy baby boy - my miracle baby.

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<i>Tune into the BBC World Service Radio's African Perspective programme to hear more about the impact of the war on terror on East Africa on Saturday 9 August 2008 at 1900 GMT. Or you can listen online from their webpage:</i><a class="bodl" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/african_perspective.shtml">African Perspective</a>