Girl in tragic Nairobi U.S. embassy bomb blast story goes missing

A girl whose tragic story was aired on Citizen TV following the aftermath of the Nairobi U.S. embassy bomb blast has gone missing.

Caroline Wairimu, whose mother Judy was pregnant with her at the time of the explosion, is now 18 years old and a Form Four student at Muthurwa High School, Kiambu.

She was last seen at the school on February 27, 2019 and the matter reported at Tigoni Police Station two weeks after relatives searched for her but to no avail.

Thursday marks 22 days since her sister Rosemary and grandmother Josephine Wambui last saw her.

The August 7, 1998 bombing saw Caroline’s mother and sister sustain serious head injuries inside the Kenya Bus that they had boarded to town.

Her sister Rosemary was only two years old at the time and when she was taken to hospital, she was mistakenly pronounced dead.

In an interview with Citizen TV last year, Rosemary narrated how doctors realised she was still breathing yet she had been taken to the morgue.

“Daktari mmoja alikuja akasema huyu mtoto hajakufa apelekwe kwa machine aangaliwe…nilikaa in a coma for 21 days,” she said.

Their mother on the other hand was in surgery as doctors battled to save her life and that of the baby in her womb.

This they did but she remained hospitalised for seven more months until she gave birth to Caroline.

As Caroline grew up, she would often ask for her mother but would get indefinite answers, as the family struggled to pay hospital bills, selling most of what they had.

The older child who had been discharged from hospital resumed school but would often go without food, her grandmother left unable to provide.

“Tulikuwa na shida mingi sana ndio kulala njaa, tunaenda shule kama hatujakula,” Rosemary said. Their mother Judy died in May 2006.

Caroline on the other hand grew up with a loving sister and grandmother Josephine.

They are appealing for anyone with information on Caroline to alert the police so that they can be reunited with the child who was born despite the odds that followed the 1998 terror attack.