Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris commemorated the 23rd anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attack at Ground Zero in Manhattan in which nearly 3,000 people were killed.
Among those killed was Kaaria Mbaya who worked at the World Trade Center and was, the only Kenyan who died in the attack.
Kaaria came from family that was prominent in the post-independence era.
He was the son of former Meru South Member of Parliament Hon Simon Mbaya and Prof Verstistine Mbaya.
His father died in a tragic road crash in 1976 while his mother was an accomplished scholar and a notable voice in the world of activism and a close associate of Prof Wangari Maathai.
He was born in a family of five children (two sisters and two brothers) who were all born in Kenya where they also attended early education.
Mbaya attended St George’s School in Nairobi for his primary education before proceeding to and Nairobi School for ‘O’ Levels.
His passion to further his education saw him proceed to Villanova and St Joseph’s Universities in Pennsylvania, USA, for undergraduate and graduate studies in computer science and engineering.
Mbaya built a successful career as a computer analyst at a time when computers and technology were revolutionizing how the world operates and was in his office at the World Trade Center during the September 11.
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Aged 38 and at the prime of his career, Mbaya worked as a senior computer analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald and had reported to work hoping for another successful day.
His office was located on the 105th floor of one of the towers that terrorists crashed a hijacked plane into.
His body was recovered from the rubble after a thorough search that spanned several days, with the world following the unfolding events in New York closely.
“This is terrible news but it offers some relief. It is better than going to New York only to find that the search has ended and the place sealed off and your son is still missing.” Prof Verstistine said shortly after her son’s body was recovered from the rubble.
In what remains one of the worst terrorist attack in US soil, terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners and crashed two planes into each of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.
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A third plane was crashed into the Pentagon, with the fourth crashing in a field in rural Pennsylvania after passengers tried to thwart the hijacking, killing more than 100 people.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed.
