Firm That Lost 21 Workers

Posted to the web 12 August 2008 John Ngirachu Nairobi Friday August 8, 1998, started like any other day for the 21 employees of Consolidated Insurance Brokers in Nairobi. Andrew Gitau Muriithi was at work at his office on the fifth floor of Ufundi Cooperative building. On the same floor was his cousin. Two floors below, Peterson Wainaina, the firm's chief accountant, was busy in the humdrum world of accounting. His deputy, Bernard Njenga was in an office on the same floor. At around 10.30 am people in the area heard what they thought were gunshots. Both Muriithi and Wainaina moved to the windows to check the cause of the commotion. Muriithi's window was above the entrance to the basement of the US embassy, where a man was about to flick a switch on a bomb. Wainaina asked Njenga what was happening. Njenga told him that those... [read full story]