Ethiopian Airlines is under fire after reports that they harassed a disabled Kenyan sports administrator.
Agnes Olouch, Chairperson of Kenya National Paralympics Committee was harassed by the staff of the airlines and left her motorized wheel chair which she moves about wit damaged as shown in a video uploaded on YouTube that has since gone viral.
Olouch said that besides her wheel chair being damaged, the airline has remained adamant in replacing it.
She said that some staff at the airline failed to give her a special wheelchair to aide her alight from the plane and instead, forced her to stand up knowing all to well she cannot.
“When I was coming back from Angola to get to Addis Ababa, I was so surprised when the checkups were being done. I was being told to stand up and when I told the lady that I cannot stand by myself, she really insisted that I must stand up,” Oluoch Said.
She added that she realized the airline does not care about people with disability.
“In Addis Ababa [during a layover], I realized Ethiopian airlines does not really cater for persons with disability because the normal trend with airlines is the persons with disability are the first ones to board the plane and last ones to alight.”
“When getting to Addis Ababa, I realized they didn’t even have the cabin wheelchair which they actually had to look for when I told them I cannot walk from my seat which was unfortunate,” added distraught Olouch.
The airline has since apologized and pledged to contact her and address the matter.