The day seemed to be the most exciting as a group of fifty students had prepared themselves for the trip. Everyone could be seen with a smile on his or her face as we set off for the journey to 7th August Memorial park. We boarded the bus and in less than an hour we had arrived. We were welcomed by one of the tour guides who informed us more about the 7th August Memorial park.The 7th August Memorial park is a site which was constructed beside the United States embassy (us embassy) which was attacked on 7th August 1998 following a conflict between Somalia and the united states embassy. The US Embassy was attacked by two Alkaida men who were sent from Somali.The day was just to be like any other day before 10:30am when the men arrived at the gate of the United States Embassy by a lorry. They demanded the security guard to open for them but he refused and claimed that he did not have the keys. As the guard tried to call the phone saying that there is danger, all the phones were busy.The men got angry and decided to throw a bomb and a grenade into the compound, by which everyone’s attraction was drawn, in the building, the Ufundi house. At that time, the former U.S. ambassador, Boshnel was having a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture of Kenya at the 5th floor. The drawing of the second bomb led to destruction of the Ufundi house and all the glasses used to construct the US embassy building fell down, cutting people. 218 people perished irrespective of their races, gender or background. 85 people were seriously injured and some of them also lived with the injuries upto today. There was an ongoing rescue operation which lasted for three days trying to rescue a number of people who trapped in the buildings. Luckily, the former U.S. ambassador was a live. But many people had lost their lives. The site was constructed in memories of those who lost their lives in the bomb blast. The families of the victims also gifted the park some of the objects which belonged to their loved ones for there to be set as a testimony and a history to the society. The museum at the park has a lot of photos and belongings to the victims to act as a memory of what happened. In addition, national flags are also kept to represent the nationality of those who perished. There are 12 American flags 2 for Rwanda and 208 for Kenya, each representing those who died during the attack. There is a tomb containing the names of those who died as memories of what happened. People go to pray for them so that their souls could rest in peace. The tour guides are looking forward to promote peace in this society because whatever happened was as a result of lack of peace in the society. All the students were very optimistic to former Peace Club to ensure that they promote peace in the school. We were served with lunch and the rest of the time students interacted with each other discussing how they would form the peace club. At around 4:00 PM we all set off for the journey back to school. Everyone was so excited but also emotional.

Written by: Angella Mitchelle