NAIROBI, Kenya -- President Daniel arap Moi last night announced the first arrests in the U.S. Embassy bombing here as the rescue and body recovery phase of the aftermath ended formally and emotionally in front of a deliberately ugly monument to an evil deed.
No details of the arrests were released, but they came six days after the blast that claimed 5,097 victims, killing 247, including 12 Americans.
"A number of persons have been detained in relation to this incident and are providing useful leads into the circumstances surrounding the blast," a statement from Moi's office said.
In Washington, a U.S. law enforcement official told the Associated Press that two people had been detained as suspects. Neither was Kenyan.
The U.S. response differed from a more cautious approach taken earlier this week after police in Tanzania announced detentions that later appeared unpromising.
The FBI, which has been sifting through the rubble for clues since Friday's twin attacks here and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is to hold its first briefing here today with interest focused on the identities of those arrested, the vehicle in which the bomb was detonated, and the origins of the explosives.
The State Department acknowledged last night that Prudence Bushnell, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, and the Defense Department were soalarmed about threats to the embassy in Kenya that they requested a safer building, but were rejected for budgetary reasons.
Prompted by requests from news organizations, the State Department revealed details of the security warnings issued to the department over the last nine months by the ambassador, and the U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military interests in East Africa.
No specific threat
Senior State Department officials said they did not believe that Bushnell had cited any particular terrorist threat in her two requests for a new embassy -- the first made in a cable in December, the second in April in a message sent directly to Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright.
"She indicated that resource constraints were endangering embassy personnel," said Patrick Kennedy, assistant secretary for administration, who choked with emotion as he described the warnings that the ambassador had made. "Unfortunately, we simply lack the money to respond immediately to all the needs of embassy construction -- it's just like a family with limited resources," he said at a news conference.
"She expressed her concerns on the vulnerability of the embassy and requested a security assessment," Kennedy said. "Her desire was to have a new building. The department expressed its agreement and shared its understanding." He described the tone of the memo as "concerned."
To mark the end of the Nairobi search and rescue mission, wreaths were laid at a small pile of shattered blocks, reinforcing rods protruding from their rough edges, beside the windowless and scorched wall of the U.S. Embassy.
Attending the brief ceremony were representatives of the four nations involved in the rescue -- Kenya, the United States, Israel and France.
Bushnell, who escaped the bombing with minor injuries, scattered a dozen roses over the 4-foot-high mound of rubble, choking back tears.
Shortly before the ceremony Bushnell recorded an interview with Kenyan TV in which she sought to answer local criticism of U.S. Marines for securing the embassy building and those inside it immediately after the blast rather than helping look for Kenyan victims outside.
"We were rescuing people [at the embassy]," she said. "There was no determination as to race, religion, ethnic group. We were trying to get as many people out as we possibly could."
At the site, the focus changed from a search for victims to a search for clues. FBI agents scoured the area looking for the tiniest useful fragments as well as uncovering a flattened wreck of a vehicle against the embassy wall, perhaps the vehicle that carried the explosives.
Final body
The search for survivors and the recovery of victims was declared over at dawn as the 95th and final body was pulled
from the collapsed five-story Ufundi bank building next to the embassy.
One of the last bodies recovered was that of Rose Wanjuki, a bank messenger and mother of three, who for the first four days of the crisis was communicating with the Israeli rescue team leading the recovery operation.
When found yesterday, she had been dead for at least 24 hours, according to Avi Shahar, the Israeli team commander who had been her main contact during her entrapment in a concrete tomb next to the bank's ground floor vault.
The safe prevented the ceiling from falling in on her and gave her enough room to move around, but it also narrowed the approaches the rescuers could take to get to her.
"There was no way to reach her," said Shahar, who found her body lying on a table in the cavern. She had no visible injuries. Stress, he said, might have caused her death.
Her voice was first heard by the Israelis on Saturday morning, 24 hours after the bombing. It was strong enough to convince them that she was on the fourth or fifth level of the building.
"We thought we could reach her, but we didn't know exactly the location from where the voice came," said Shahar, who laid the Israeli wreath at the rubble memorial.
As the floors above her were cleared away, it became clear she was trapped at the bottom of the rubble, next to the vault, and the rescuers realized they were in a race against time. Monday her voice was weak. It was the last contact.
"For me it became a project -- to try and find her voice," said Shahar, who is a professional underwater photographer. "For me it was something special. It was very important to get to her."
Her husband, James Irungu, was at the scene when her body was recovered in the early hours of yesterday.
Another ritual
Across town in the greensward of Uhuru (Independence) Park, another sad ritual was taking place.
There Kenyans stood shoulder to shoulder peering at lists of the victims, still trying to locate relatives and friends. Nowhere was the silence deeper than before the board listing those "confirmed dead." It told where their bodies could be found -- in the city mortuary, a local funeral home or the U.S. Embassy warehouse.
Agatha Njoki headed the list. Then came Ahmed Warku Mohammed, followed by Alice Nduja Gachiri and 162 others, leaving a further 82 names, including Rose Wanjuki's, to be penned on the pastel-colored paper at the open-air registry of death.
One of those scrutinizing the list was Anthony Mwangi, who sells stationery. His friend, banker Moses Karieki worked at a desk on the ground floor of the Ufundi bank building, where Rose Wanjuki was found.
"I think he must have been one of the last to be retrieved," said Mwangi. "He is not on the list yet. He must have been at the bottom of the rubble.
"The average Kenyan doesn't understand what has happened," Mwangi continued. "When terrorists say they want to kill Americans, they should kill them in the United States. In Africa, we have a saying, 'When two lions fight, it is the grass that suffers.' We are the grass this time."
Other boards in the park revealed the whereabouts of others in the hospitals -- 133 in M. P. Shah Hospital, 97 in Masaba, 54 in Mater Misericordiae, 70 in St. James and 165 ar Kenyatta National.
Pub Date: 8/13/98