How tracking the bomber's hotel jolted my career forever

That is how I landed on the world-exclusive story that marked a major turning point in my journalism career and in my life.

My day of basking in international glory was on August 18, 1998, when a senior CID officer attached to the joint Kenyan and American team of investigators telephoned me at Nation Centre to inform me that they were going to raid Hilltop Hotel in downtown town, near Kirinyaga Road.

This is where the bombers spent their last night and assembled the deadly arsenal on the morning of the attack. They ferried their deadly cargo on the back of a pickup truck parked overnight outside the nondescript three-storey guesthouse.

The guesthouse is tucked in a crime-prone zone and anyone going there at night risks being mugged. It offers cheap accommodation though the bombers - who put Kenya in the international spotlight for months to come - chose the hideout because they would not attract attention and the guesthouse did not keep a register of guests.

Guests were not vetted and payment was the only condition for admission.

I called a photographer, Peter Karuri, and we raced to the hotel on Kirinyaga Road, popularly known as Grogon Road. My police source had told me we shouldn't be seen by the investigations team as we would arouse suspicion and risk being ejected.

Karuri and I took a hidden strategic position in an adjacent kiosk from where we captured every detail as the CID and FBI squad combed the hotel in a four-hour systematic operation.

First responders at the blast site bravely attempt to rescue survivors. [File, Standard]

The CID and FBI combed the two rooms in search of evidence. It is believed the bombers assembled their 800-kilo TNT deadly device in the two rooms.

They transferred it to the pickup truck on the morning of the attack and completed the assembling there. The attack placed Kenya firmly on the map insofar as modern terrorism is concerned.

Frank Whalley, a Briton hired as training editor a few months earlier, prevailed upon my bosses to give me a permanent job. When I returned to the Nation Centre from the guesthouse, Job Githinji, the news editor, told me the management and the human resources department were urgently looking for me. The story earned me instant employment as a reporter without the mandatory written and oral interviews.

I also got a cash token of Sh5,000 for the exclusive story. Through the tragedy, God, in His own wisdom, used that single story to open the door for my successful journalism career and untold blessings to date. On August 20, 1998, Daily Nation ran a page one sidebar story boasting of its journalism prowess.

Then Managing Editor Tom Mshindi wrote me an appreciation letter that read: "I wish on behalf of the management to congratulate you for the initiative and enterprise that resulted in the excellent story on the front page. The international attention it has generated confirms the importance of the story. May it serve to motivate you and your colleagues to aim even higher. Congratulations again." It was dated August 19, 1998.

The story opened doors for my successful career as a top crime reporter. Foreign media houses sought me for interviews regarding my stories. Others tasked me to write for them.

God, in His own wisdom, had answered my prayers through Kenya's worst tragedy.

[Stephen Muiruri is a former editor (Crime and Security) at the Nation Media Group and a former editorial consultant of The DCI magazine]