Families of Kenyans who perished in a March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash have in the past few weeks been receiving compensation running into billions of shillings from Boeing, the Nation has learnt.
It has also been a windfall for lawyers who represented them as they receive their payments.
Boeing, the American aircraft manufacturer, negotiated with lawyers representing victims’ families. The outcome of the process has been payment to families of the deceased based on a variety of criteria.
“The criteria include the age and financial status of a victim as at the time of the death. The compensation amount also depended on the negotiation skills of the lawyers representing the families,” said Murang’a Governor Irungu Kang’ata, one of the lawyers involved in the matter. Dr Kang’ata operates a law firm in Nairobi’s Upper Hill.
According to a June 25 document seen by the Nation , one family got a net pay of $4.2 million (Sh581.8 million) after deductions that included $1884035 (Sh243 million) to lawyers, among other deductions.
In most cases, Kenyan lawyers teamed up with their American counterparts to form a cross-border consortium to prosecute the case against Boeing.
“I can confirm we have been able to settle most of these cases through negotiations with Boeing,” said Dr Kang’ata. “But I cannot divulge more details for client privacy reasons.”
The latest round of payments is the second instalment. The first round was made to the families by the aircraft’s insurer. The second one is payment from Boeing.
“The lawyers only got paid after the Boeing compensation,” said Dr Kang’ata.
The ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 was scheduled to fly from Bole Airport in Ethiopia to Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
However, the plane, a Boeing 737 Max 8, crashed near the town of Bishofu, six minutes after take-off, in what has mostly been blamed on a fault in the aeroplane’s control system called the Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System. All 157 people aboard died, and 32 among them were Kenyans.
