M. Profile picture
Aug 7, 2018 5 tweets 5 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
The only aerial photo of the August 7th 1998 blast taken in real time by a construction worker at Times Towers.

#Aug7at20
#iSurvived98
August 7th was the end of a normal week in KE. Bankers' strike (hence reduced casualties at Coop), teachers' strike, petty politics...a time like now, just an hour to the blast, this is the headline you would have been reading.
#Aug7at20
#iSurvived98
#Kenyanhistory
The @USEmbassyKenya as it stood before August 7th 1998. The new one in Gigiri was opened in 2003, and the bomb blast site turned into what is today @MemorialParkKe, to commemorate the pain, suffering and bravery of that dark day 20 years ago.

#Aug7at20
#KenyanHistory
@USEmbassyKenya @MemorialParkKe The meeting that never ended. Prudence Bushnell and Kamotho were at the latter's office at Cooperative House when the blast happened. Kamotho was carried down 16 flight of stairs...Prudence was knocked unconscious, then carried to a nearby hotel.
#Aug7at20
#KenyanHistory
Prudence Bushnell's itinerary on Aug 7, 1998. When the bomb went off during her meeting with Kamotho, she thought the Coop House was the target, only to be carried downstairs and realize it had been her Embassy right across.
#Aug7at20
@USEmbassyKenya
@memorialkenya

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with M.

M. Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Owaahh

Oct 5, 2018
Now this thread is for the people who, as part of their human experience, went to national schools and groups of schools. First, you are not brighter than us. You are not our betters. We can call out your abuse or any abuse by anyone you identify with.
I am not attacking you when I say this. But over and over again when I make a point about how your schools have harmed the Kenyan experience, the same conversation happens. I am not attacking your experiences, or your humanity.
That I spent more mental juice trying to explain this to old boys of Starehe (still waiting for that invite to your Whatsapp groups) bothers me. Are we our high schools? Are we going to live as adults by the institutions we visited (it was a visit, just a long one).
Read 12 tweets
Sep 28, 2018
If you feel the need to talk to me, to be angry with me, or just to insult to me, my email address is at the end or this tweet. I will post screenshots of your email here, without your name or address. Let's talk. Let's unpack this feeling. This foreboding. >>

m@owaahh.com
They subject for this one was "I truly lack a subject."
We must all entertain the thought, and it's weird that we have to even do this because it should be default, that there are no second chances. No heavens or hells. No God and therefore, no power and no hierarchy. There's just life, right now.
Read 48 tweets
Sep 27, 2018
The Man Who Sold a Country owaahh.com/the-man-who-so…
In Lieu of a King: "The raids on the public coffers have become the national soap opera, each new twist being fed as tantalizing fodder to a tabloid generation." owaahh.com/in-lieu-of-a-k…
There had been an Africa: A Letter to Future Africans: "Africa was a dream come true, a land where nothing was sacred. Everyone who could, ate. Everyone who couldn’t, was eaten." owaahh.com/there-had-been…
Read 7 tweets
Sep 21, 2018
On this day, five years ago, Westgate was just waking up the way malls do. What begun just a few hours from now could have been prevented, could have been stopped before it escalated, could have been solved fast, could have been investigated so we never go through it again...
The clusterfuckery that's the other side of this social contract we call Kenya failed in every instance. It ignored warnings, reacted like a drunk sloth, brought tanks to a gun fight, frustrated international investigators, and blew up a pile of explosive mattresses.
Yes, a few men and women were heroes that day. But they didn't have to die or almost die. No mother deserves to have to tell her child to lie on the floor and stay quiet just minutes after the child was having the time of her life buying shoes.
Read 9 tweets
Sep 20, 2018
Also, freedom of expression? That one that has been under threat for a while, there's a new wave coming with the Copyright Amendment Bill (2017), now in heading to its 3rd Reading.

Everything on this page is a real threat to the stories you want to read.
Let me tell you a story.
Two years ago, after I did the Tatu City series (owaahh.com/war-tatu-city/), several things happened. One of them was that someone in Lagos sent a takedown request to my host. I didn't know until I had all of 12 hours to respond to it.
If it wasn't a phone picking day (don't even ask), the site would've been suspended immediately. The point of the takedown (which was about copyright infringement on some images, I'll attach the letter here in a bit), was to bring down the site, and kill access to the story.
Read 13 tweets
Sep 20, 2018
Are we angry yet?

Are we angry enough yet?

What will finally break us? Because not only can the center not hold, it has been mortgaged for generations.
It seems there are only ways to experience this country today, as a subservient, overly optimistic (even with a gun to the head), voting citizen who stays quiet and prays for Ushuru and Bill the Teary.

Or as an anarchist. Because this can't be how this story ends.
What is the collective trauma that's holding us back? Because when you think about it, we haven't even processed the trauma of the last 5 years. Terror attacks, lies, more lies, other new lies, paying for personal fortunes, and paying taxes so the treasure hunt never ends.
Read 16 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(