Larry Madowo’s recent attempts to tarnish the reputation of Ethiopian Airlines follow a well-coordinated, richly-financed, and intricately-choreographed effort to undermine Ethiopian Airlines’ standing in the global market to preserve the exploitative dominance of non-African airlines. This comes amid Ethiopian Airlines’ unprecedented growth and outpacing of non-African airlines in the last 12 months in several markets through strategic expansion, fleet modernization, and enhancement of customer satisfaction, as the airline, implementing its Vision 2035 strategy, moves to solidify its position as a top global airline.
The excellence of Ethiopian Airlines
As we speak, Ethiopian Airlines is aggressively expanding its route network, recently adding new international and domestic destinations. In June 2024 alone, the airline introduced four new international routes, including Freetown (Sierra Leone) and Warsaw (Poland), and increased flight frequencies on existing routes. This expansion enhances connectivity and tightens Ethiopian Airlines’ position as a leading carrier in Africa, making it difficult for non-African airlines to break new ground within the continent.
The airline is also currently investing heavily in modernizing its fleet, ordering a significant number of new aircraft, with plans to grow its fleet to 271+ aircraft by 2035, including orders for Boeing 737s and 787s, as well as Airbus A350s. This modern fleet improves Ethiopian Airlines’ operational efficiency and enhances passenger experience, making the airline more competitive in the global market.
Ethiopian Airlines’ commitment to customer service is well recognized through various awards, including being named the Best Airline in Africa 2024 for the seventh consecutive year. Ethiopian Airlines has also received accolades for its in-flight entertainment and Wi-Fi services, which have helped the airline build a strong brand reputation, attract more passengers, and foster loyalty, positioning the airline favorably as demand for air travel continues to rise across Africa.
Weaponization of Larry Madowo
With such excellence and ambitious plans, the weaponization of Larry Madowo, CNN’s Kenyan correspondent, is neither isolated nor unexpected. It follows an old imperial playbook of patronizing Africans, platforming them, and then weaponizing them to hold back Africa’s progress and potential. The same script was at play during the Western-backed war in Northern Ethiopia in 2021, when another African, Nima Elbagir, also working for CNN, was weaponized against Ethiopia.
Larry Madowo is a particularly curious case. He has been groomed and platformed through the propaganda tiers of Western media, including BBC and now CNN, and serves as a replacement for Nima Elbagir, CNN’s Sudanese correspondent, who lost her credibility after her collusion in fueling the 2021 war in northern Ethiopia was exposed. Ever since his fast-tracking through the ranks at CNN, Madowo has become the blackface of CNN and Western efforts to impose the LGBT agenda in Kenya and Africa, and to undermine iconic African corporate brands.
Historically, Western corporations and countries have held significant control over global markets. However, the rise of strong African corporations such as Ethiopian Airlines within the aviation industry is threatening this dominance. Madowo and his ilk have been weaponized to counter this development through negative portrayal, fabrication of incidents, and amplification of routine operational irregularities that occur in airlines worldwide, including in the developed world, but are resolved internally and not detrimentally amplified to destroy their brands.
The recent incident involving a Somali traveler affected by an overbooking irregularity with Ethiopian Airlines is a classic example. While such irregularities are common in airlines worldwide, Madowo distorted the incident with falsehoods and amplified it to skew the narrative and portray Ethiopian Airlines in a negative light. When his claims were debunked with definitive corrections and clarifications of the actual sequence of events, corroborated by other travelers, Madowo, instead of gracefully apologizing as any mistaken journalist should, followed up with the woman and coerced statements to validate himself.
This has raised suspicions about Larry Madowo’s presence at the airline at the same time as the incident. Was his presence a coincidence or by design? To ask is to answer.
Africans counter Larry Madowo’s Hit job
Fortunately, while Madowo might have underestimated the intelligence of Africans to see through his theatrics, many have responded with a strong defense of Ethiopian Airlines. They acknowledge the possibility of the irregularity but emphasize that such issues are common in airlines worldwide. Many have called out Madowo, insisting that, being well-traveled and aware of such occurrences, his portrayal of the situation as a major and deliberate error raises suspicion.
A well-renowned and respected Pan-African, known by X (formerly twitter) handle @futurical, even went so far as to accuse Larry Madowo of being weaponized against Africa in a post, saying Madowo “is currently the poster boy for CNN’s hit propaganda aimed at destroying iconic African brands, with the latest target being @flyethiopian.” Madowo has yet to deny this accusation, with only some of his fellow Kenyans, whose opinions are largely influenced by shared citizenship, providing unsatisfactory denials.