CAF Match commissioner Hussein Swaleh from Kenya was among the passengers that perished on Sunday Morning on the Ethiopian Airlines flight 302/10 that was on its way from Addis Ababa to Nairobi but ended tragically when the flight crushed.
Hussein Swaleh was arrived in Addis Ababa’s Bole Airport from Cairo,Egypt for his connecting flight to Nairobi.Swaleh had attended a CAF mission as Match Commisoner for the CAF Champions League match between hosts Ismaily vs TP Mazembe.
Swaleh almost missed the flight as he had a 20 minutes turnaround and according to his colleague Suleman Daud who was the General Coordinator in the same match and sat with him on their flight from Cairo
“We sat next to each other with Hussein Swaleh on our flight from Egypt to Addis.He was worried he could miss his flight as he has a 20 minutes turnaround to the next flight upon our arrival in Addis Ababa but he finally managed to check in the Ethiopian flight.Its sad to note of what transpired next”
Hussein Swaleh is a Former secretary general of the national federation and was a high-ranking football official, Hussein and was one of the longest administrative careers in local football.
Swaleh was the secretary general of the Kenya Football Federation (KFF) when Kenya last played at the Africa Cup of Nations final in 2004, organising the team’s high profile training camps in Qatar and United Kingdom where they played against the then English Premier League side, Bolton Wanderers FC.
KFF was later merged with the rival Football Kenya Limited to form FKF in the unified elections of 2011.
The Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 passenger jet to Nairobi crashed early on Sunday, killing 149 passengers and eight crew, the airline said having left Bole airport in Addis Ababa at 8:38am (+3GMT), before losing contact with the control tower just a few minutes later at 8:44 am.
-More to follow
