An ailing Kenyan woman is currently stranded at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) after she was allegedly ejected from a flight.
The Standard reports that Ms. Wangare Ndumia, 25, was seeking to travel to India for specialized treatment but was kicked out of the flight minutes before take-off on Sunday.
Attendants of the Etihad airlines flight reportedly ejected Wangare together with her sister Ann Ndumia on grounds that she was not fit to fly.
Attempts by Ann to convince the crew that her sister was stable enough to partake the journey fell on deaf ears as officials insisted she was not fit to fly.
Trouble allegedly began after Ann requested to have her sister allocated a seat with enough legroom owing to her health status.
Wangare's right leg is held with screws and metal bars due to a condition of loss of bone mass.
The two were armed with an authorization letter from the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) signed by Dr. Samson Kuhora.
The letter indicates Wangare has been diagnosed with severe osteomyelitis- an infection of the bone.
She is also suffering from large bone loss as a result of a fracture and has been referred for insertion of the mega prosthesis at BLK Hospital in New Delhi, India.
“NHIF has reviewed this case and is undertaking to pay up to Ksh500,000 which is equivalent of USD 4,921 for the procedure including investigations related to the primary reason for travel," part of the letter reads.
She says this is the second time the airline has ejected her from the flight after a similar incident last Tuesday.
“And they refused to refund us the cash we paid a total of Ksh116,870," She told The Standard.
The airline has put the blame on a local booking agent, Prudential Travels.
“For all medical reasons travel you ought not to issue tickets before medical clearance with a fit to fly remark," it says in a letter to the agent.
“Kindly note your ticket was within 24 hours we cannot cancel, only airport taxes can be reversed and a credit note issued under the same passenger names. No cash fund is given on Air Arabia. You may cancel the inbound flight.” the airline said after the first incident last week.
The two were forced to book another flight with the same agent and were asked to pay Sh50,000 more.
They secured a flight ticket with Etihad to Delhi via Abu Dhabi, which was scheduled for Sunday at 2:15 pm, this time the agent ensuring all the medical documentation for Wangare were in order.
The two were, however, ejected again with airline officials saying: “We called Medilink, which is the global agent on medical issues for all airlines based in Singapore and they said she was not fit to travel.”
The officials also claimed that Wangare was in serious pain when she was being assisted to board the plane.
She contracted the bone infection after being involved in a road crash in 2017.
