This archive report was first published on 28 August 2019.
On April 28, 2019, a Kenya Airways flight to Johannesburg was forced to abort takeoff after a passenger raised a false alarm, sparking a three-hour shutdown of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
Chifraye Bekele, an Ethiopian man, was found guilty of "imperiling the safety of aircraft and persons on board" by Magistrate Christine Njagi and sentenced to four months in prison or a Sh100,000 fine.
According to reports, Bekele mentioned the word 'bomb' during an argument with another passenger, causing a scare in the plane which was taxing ready for take-off.
As a result, all passengers had to disembark from the plane, leading to the cancellation of the flight.
Bekele was immediately handed over to the Anti-Terror Police Unit for interrogation and has been in prison since then.
During his testimony in court via a translator, Bekele claimed he did not make the joke, stating that he only spoke Amharic and not English.
