Family buries two best friends killed in Riverside attack

Two best friends who died during the attack on dusitD2 hotel at the 14 Riverside complex in Nairobi were buried on Wednesday.

Kenyan development professionals Abdalla Dahir and Feisal Ahmed, from consulting firm Adam Smith International (ASI), were having lunch together at the Secret Garden restaurant in the grounds of the hotel when the suicide bomber struck.

Friends and relatives described Ahmed, whose widow is seven months pregnant, and Dahir as inseparable.

Both worked on economic programs trying to improve life in Somalia, home to the militant group that claimed responsibility for the attack.

“He (Ahmed) was an outgoing funny guy, charismatic. He was loved by everybody,” said Mohammed Abdilatif, a close friend and colleague of Ahmed.

On LinkedIn, Dahir said he was passionate about photography and sharing “the stories of vulnerable people especially the voiceless victims of violence in order to educate the world about the detrimental impacts of war.”

“They were close buddies,” said Ahmed’s brother-in-law Abdullahi Keinan. “They were so close, people said they would die together.”

On Wednesday, their bodies left the mortuary together for a joint funeral.

SURVIVOR OF 9/11 KILLED

A man who survived the 9/11 attacks was also killed during the siege that began on Tuesday evening.

“It is with a heavy heart that I have to report that my brother Jason Spindler passed away this morning during a terror attack in Nairobi, Kenya. Jason was a survivor of 9-11 and a fighter. I am sure he gave them hell!”, his brother Jonathan posted on Facebook.