Kenyan Man who Lost His Family in Ethiopian Crash to Testify before US Congress

A Kenyan man who lost his family in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash in March this year is on Wednesday set to testify before US Congress.

35-year-old Paul Njoroge from Nakuru lost his wife, three children and his mother-in-law when the Boeing 737 MAX flight went down six minutes after leaving Ethiopia's Bole International Airport on March 10th.

“Without them, I feel nothing. I’m empty,” Njoroge told Reuters.

“The pain will never go away. I will think of them every minute for the rest of my life.”

Njoroge is among the victims’ families who have filed lawsuits against Boeing, accusing it of negligence.

Njoroge said his life has never been the same again since the accident that claimed the lives of all the 157 people on board. His family was visiting Kenya from Canada when the crash happened.

“For most of these families, our lives stopped completely with the crash,” Njoroge said, adding that he has not been able to work since then. “What motivates us now is to be an advocate for aviation safety.”

Njoroge will testify in US House Subcommittee on Aviation along with Dana Schulze, acting director of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Office of Aviation Safety, and officials from aviation workers’ unions.

Njoroge wants Congress to probe Boeing as well as the certification process of the US government’s Federal Aviation Administration, which deemed the plane safe.

“I think about their last six minutes a lot. My wife and mum-in-law knew they were going to die. They had to somehow comfort the children during those final moments,” Njoroge said in his written testimony.

“I have nightmares about how they must have clung to their mother, crying, seeing the fright in her eyes.”