FKF President Nick Mwendwa confirmed the sad news in a tweet on Sunday afternoon. Photo/Twitter
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 10 – Hussein Swaleh, a former Football Kenya Federation (FKF) General Secretary is among the 32 Kenyans who died in the early morning Ethiopian Airline plane crash on Sunday.
FKF President Nick Mwendwa confirmed the sad news in a tweet on Sunday afternoon,
“Sad day for football. You were doing what you loved most. Fare thee well my chairman. Until we meet again.”
Sad day for football. You were doing what you loved most. Fare thee well my chairman. Until we meet again. pic.twitter.com/WnOh4c3Pxh
— Nick Mwendwa (@Nmwendwa) March 10, 2019
Swaleh was connecting to Nairobi from Alexandria, Egypt where he was the match commissioner in Friday night’s CAF Champions League clash pitting Ismaily and Congolese giants TP Mazembe at the Borg el Aram Stadium.
“According to the itinerary, that was supposed to have been his flight and the general assumption is that he boarded it. We will have to wait for the full manifest from Ethiopian Airlines on who was on board the airplane for us to officially confirm,” a source told Capital Sport on Sunday.
The former Secretary General now turned CAF accredited match commissioner had travelled with the other referees from Cairo and they are reported to have landed safely at the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa from where all would board planes to their respective countries.
The Ethiopian Airline plane ET 302 had been scheduled to arrive at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 10:30am Sunday morning but according to a statement released by the airline, it lost contact just six minutes after it took off.
It was later officially reported that all 157 on board the plane died on the crash with eye witnesses telling the BBC that the plane which crashed 62km away from the Capital Addis exploded loudly and was engulfed in flames.
Photos emanating from the crush scene show an apocalyptic image of a plane wreckage burnt to ashes.
