By Noel Mwakugu BBC, Mombasa

It is now five months since the suicide bomb attack on the Mombasa Paradise Hotel on the Kenyan coast.

Bills to cover medical treatment have not been paid

The majority of those who incurred serious injuries were local people.

They are now unable to pay their medical bills despite promises of support from the government and now feel neglected.

Swalha Kubwa, a 21-year-old student at Shanzu teachers college, is another affected by the blast.

So far she is the youngest person to have been interrogated by the newly formed Kenyan anti-terrorism police unit.

She is among 15 other people who have been questioned and released by the police as they intensify the search for planners of the Mombasa Paradise Hotel attack - that left 12 people dead and several others injured.

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To many who have been closely following events after the attack on the Israeli-owned hotel in November last year, this is the only tangible action the government is taking after the attack.

Hard times

The local people who either lost their relatives or incurred serious injuries after the bomb attack feel neglected and forgotten.

For them life keeps going from bad to worse.

The hotel staff remain unpaid

Mufida Mohammed, whose husband died after battling for life for 25 days in hospital, finds it hard to describe her experience.

"It is very hard time for me and my three children since he was the only bread winner. Now he is dead and all I can say is its just terrible. Nobody is talking about any help for us," she told me, close to tears.

The employees of the once busy tourist hotel are also not spared from the pain.

By the time of the attack they had not been paid their salaries for six months and now they feel the owner of the hotel is playing tricks on them.

Their leader Phillip Aomo told me they had made several attempts to get their salaries paid but they have all failed.

And when they caught up with the Israeli owner of the hotel, Yehuda Solami, he sacked them. Now they are helpless.

In total, the workers are demanding more than $60,000 dollars as salary in arrears.

Unpaid bills

To compound the misery, those who were injured during the attack can no longer enjoy medical attention for their healing injuries.

The free medication they were receiving from Pandya Memorial Hospital, a private institution where they were admitted soon after the attack, has been discontinued due to non-payment.

Officials at the hospital confirmed to me that the government had pledged to pay for the costs but nothing has been done.

For some the scars will never heal

To date there is a bill pending of $65,000 and they feel they have overstretched their services.

"The commitment we have is just a letter from the Provincial Medical Director, Dr Khandwalla Sharif, that our payments will be made nothing more," said an accountant at the hospital.

Coast Provincial commissioner Cyrus Maina confirmed that they are yet to meet their obligation.

He laments that people who promised to support the victims have not honoured their pledges running to thousands of dollars.

Those listed include former President Daniel arap Moi and even his successor Mwai Kibaki.

And to guard against a repeat of this suffering among Kenyans, Muslims leaders under the umbrella of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, are now calling on the government to reject any attempts by America aimed at using Kenyan bases in the war against Iraq.

They say this will only expose innocent Kenyans one again as soft targets for terrorists and even after they suffer the consequences no one will come to their aid.

The United States Government has traditionally used military facilities at the Mombasa International airport and the Kenyan Naval base in Mombasa and Lamu island for some of their operations along the East African Coast.