A 10-year-old girl, remembered by friends and family with stickers of her favourite cartoon bee, was laid to rest in Sydney on Thursday, a heartbreaking symbol of a nation plunged into grief. Matilda, the youngest victim of the Bondi Beach massacre, was one of 15 people killed in what authorities have called an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack.

For Kenyans, the scenes of horror and sorrow unfolding thousands of kilometres away are a painful reminder of our own deep scars. The attack, targeting families celebrating the first night of Hanukkah, is a chilling echo of the Westgate, Garissa, and DusitD2 sieges, underscoring the shared vulnerability to a global threat that knows no borders.

A Familiar Pain

The Sydney attack, carried out by a father-son duo, saw two gunmen open fire on a crowd of about one thousand people gathered at Archer Park for a community celebration. The assault, which also left 40 people injured, is now considered the deadliest terror incident in modern Australian history. As Australian leaders grapple with the aftermath, Kenyans can recognise the all-too-familiar narrative of shock, loss, and the difficult questions that follow such senseless violence.

Kenya has endured a long and brutal history of terrorism, from the 1998 US embassy bombing to the repeated atrocities committed by al-Shabaab. The 2013 Westgate Mall attack, in which 67 people were killed, and the 2015 Garissa University massacre, which claimed 148 lives, remain deeply etched in the national psyche. Each incident, like the one in Bondi, highlights the devastating impact of extremism on innocent civilians.

Global Call for Unity

In response to the Bondi attack, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has vowed to enact new hate speech laws and has established a special task force to tackle rising antisemitism. The move reflects a global challenge, as nations seek to counter the ideologies that fuel such violence. World leaders have widely condemned the attack, with many noting it was a targeted assault on the Jewish community.

As Sydney mourns, the purple bee stickers commemorating young Matilda serve as a poignant symbol of innocence lost. From Nairobi to Sydney, the language of grief is universal, and so too is the resolve to stand united against the terror that seeks to divide.