The Kenyan victims of the August 7, 1998, bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, which occurred because Kenya was an ally of the US, have not been compensated 27 years later.

New Designations and Burdens of Old Ones

In mid-2024, the U.S administration designated Kenya as a Major Non-NATO Ally, a diplomatic move that allows the U.S to sell more weapons and potentially extend loans to Kenya for such purchases. While Washington hailed this move as pivotal in maintaining stability in the Horn of African region, effectively assigning Kenya extra-territorial burdens, the true test of how the U.S values Kenyan’s stability and lives is noted in how it refused to compensate families and victims of August 7, 1998, bombing on its embassy in Nairobi -an attack that was attracted by Kenya’s being a U.S ally. While creating a case for Global War on Terror (GWOT) to a joint session of Congress in September 2001, George W. Bush listed the attacks on the U.S embassies in Kenya and Tanzania among other atrocities conducted by Al Qaeda*, showing that an alliance with Washington cost Kenyan lives and property. Thus, it is abhorrent that the U.S administration has given hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorists while refusing to compensate Kenyans affected by terrorism. It shows that extremists benefit more from the US, while its supposed ally only bears costs. Therefore, the Key Non-NATO Ally designation for Kenya, which the U.S Senator Scott Risch has applied for potential reversal in July 2025, is ineffective. The U.S should remove it without much fuss noting that the past alliance only invited terror threats, which Washington’s security apparatus refused to stop despite being warned by Kenyan intelligence. Also, refusal (by the U.S) to compensate Kenyan........

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