Boeing has suffered another setback in its bid to settle with families of kin who perished in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, in March, after 15 Kenyan families rejected the latest offer.
The Kenyan families rejected the company’s out-of-court offer according to Nation.
Their lawyers revealed that the case was filed in the United States.
On Wednesday, Boeing pledged to give approximately Ksh 10, 238,983,456 over multiple years to local governments and non-profit organizations to help families and communities affected by the deadly crashes of its 737 MAX planes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
The move appeared to be a step toward repairing the image of the world’s largest planemaker, which has been severely dented by the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane in March, just five months after a similar crash of a Lion Air flight in Indonesia.
The two crashes killed a total of 346 people.
Boeing is the target of a US Department of Justice criminal investigation into the development of the 737 MAX, regulatory probes and more than 100 lawsuits by victims’ families.
Many of the passengers on board the Ethiopian Airlines flight were aid workers or involved with health, food, or environmental programs.
Settlements from Boeing have elicited wrangles among some families in Kenya. In April, two families were set to battle it out for compensation money of a lost member who died on the ill-fated Boeing 737 Max.
Families of victims were set to receive between Ksh17 million and Ksh25 million, depending on the deceased's age, profession and position in society in accordance with the Monreal Convention Standards.
In June, more drama unfolded as the Law Society of Kenya came out to issue a warning to families of the Ethiopian Airline plane crash victims.
LSK stated that two foreign firms purporting to represent the families, in a case against the Boeing plane manufacturer, were not qualified to practice in Kenya under provisions of the Advocates Act.
