Remarks for 6th Annual Commemoration of Nairobi Embassy Bombing

Thank you, Serah Chifallu, for the song which opened the ceremony.

Colleagues, Friends and Family Members. Welcome to the Embassy this morning as we remember the events of August 1998 and honor our friends, colleagues and loved ones. This is our private function, a family affair, and we have scheduled it at a time when we could all get together most conveniently.

Tomorrow morning, I will visit the August 7^th Memorial Park to place another wreath there, together with members of the Park’s Board of Trustees. That will be the public event.

I’ve been in Nairobi exactly one year now – a similar memorial event here last August was among my first undertakings as Ambassador – and I think I understand more fully today what this Embassy, what all of you, experienced six years ago and what you continue to feel. You have my sympathy, and you have my respect. It is both humbling and inspiring to work alongside so many brave people.

We will continue these ceremonies as long as I am Ambassador – in part to honor the dead and offer comfort to the survivors, but also to rededicate ourselves each year to preventing any recurrence of the tragedy of August 7^th, 1998.

This seems especially important now when the entire world is trying to cope the growing threat of terrorism, which six years ago seemed so new and so shocking. Then, many thought that the U.S. alone was the target, and that all the many victims were just innocent bystanders, caught up in someone else’s war.

Today, after Kikambala, after Bali, after Saudi Arabia and Morocco, after Istanbul and Madrid, after last weekend’s attacks in Tashkent, I think we all understand that this is not the case. Kenya was and is also in the line of fire. The perpetrators want just as much to take away Kenya’s freedom to decide its future and live as it chooses, as to attack the United States. The U.S. may have been the first target, but it has not been the last.

We will continue together to work to thwart these efforts to frighten us into accepting the terrorists’ vision of how the world should be. I promise you that we will not let down our guard.

Pamoja Tutashinda Adui! (Together we shall defeat our enemy)