Anger as disabled Ghanaian woman is prevented from boarding domestic flight with crutches

In a very emotional Facebook post, 30-year-old Department of Social Welfare employee Rita Kriba shared her rather harrowing experience at the hands of Africa World Airlines (AWA) staff at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana on May, 2.

According to Rita, she was prevented from boarding her flight to Kumasi because the staff claimed there was no room for her crutches. Efforts by her and her friends whom she was travelling with to reach some sort of compromise with the staff went to no avail. She subsequently missed her flight.

In an interview with local news portal Citi News, she tearfully spoke about the incident and lamented on the senseless discrimination disabled persons go through.

“I don’t know the reason why I must be in my own country and I won’t have access to certain quick things which will make life very easy and comfortable for me as a citizen of Ghana. We are all human beings and at least, we should all be treated fairly. If I have my money and I want to board a plane to wherever I want to go to do a quick transaction and come back to wherever I stay, I think I have the right and I think I deserve that,” she said.

This incident would however not deter Rita from fighting for the rights of the disabled in Ghana. She is championing this through the NGO she runs called the Disabled Child and Youth Foundation.

“I want people with disabilities to be treated as normal citizens of Ghana. I want children with disability to grow up knowing that they are part of the society, knowing that they can also create an impact, knowing that they are like any other [able-bodied] person and they can achieve whatever they want to achieve,” she told Citi News.

Take a look at some of the reactions to her post: