A Kakamega family has denied a report by a British television station, SKY, that its firstborn could be the man who fell from a KQ plane in the United Kingdom.
It is an about-turn from when they were shown the e-fit photo produced by the London Metropolitan police and the images of the stowaway’s personal belongings -- confirming to an investigative journalist that they belonged to their son.
The family has told Standard Digital that their son is Centrick Shivonje and not Paul Manyasi as was extensively reported by Sky TV yesterday.
“My brother could be alive and they got the names of my parents’ and village wrong,” Brian Beti told us.
The plane was flying from Nairobi to Heathrow when a body fell into the garden in south London's Clapham suburb. The stowaway fell about 3,500 feet, his body creating a mini crater on impact.
Sky TV’s John Sparks reported the names of the stowaway's parents as Isaac Manyasi and Janet Manyasi. Brian says his parents are Isaac Beti and Janet Khakali.
“He last posted on Facebook in July yet the man they were reporting about fell from the plane on June 30,” Brian added.
Asked if the family had contacted their son, Brian says he often changed phone numbers and it was hard to get hold of him.
“Someone has told dad that he was last seen at Kibera Law Courts,” he said, adding that his father was preparing to travel to Nairobi to authenticate the information.
Isaac told KTN News’ Willy Lusige that he had not spoken to his son since July 2017. He added that his son left Kakamega for Nairobi in 2016.
"Tuligombana kwa simu ndio maana hatujaongea tangu 2017" Babake Cedrick Shivonje anayedaiwa kuwa Paul Manyasi #LeoMashinani @loftymatambo @WillyLusige https://t.co/BztgQeArOH pic.twitter.com/6lCH70cpxi — ktn (@KTNKenya) November 13, 2019
Sky TV reported that Paul, who was 29, was a cleaner with Colnet company at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi.
In an interview, the stowaway's girlfriend and colleague at Colnet, confirmed to SKY that Paul went missing at the end of June, around the same time a body was reported to have dropped off the KQ plane.
Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) yesterday said that it could not find any individual named Paul Manyasi in the JKIA pass register.
The authority further clarified that any person working at the airport required an access pass and that the name Manyasi could not be traced from the airport pass biometric register.
The puzzle of the stowaway who started his journey from the JKIA has raised questions about the effectiveness of security checks.
Today, Colnet Limited Kenya also denied that they had such an employee in its records.
“Colnet is aware of the incident by way of fact that there were investigations carried out on the stowaway incident and the company has provided its employees’ record and information to the investigative authorities which confirm that there is no employee by the name Paul Manyasi,” the cleaning company said.
The Metropolitan Police Service yesterday said it was still investigating the circumstances surrounding the death and was in the process of identifying the stowaway.
“Sky News has provided us with images of Paul Manyasi,” the force’s media and communication manager Chioma Dijeh said.
The stowaway's body is being held at a London mortuary.
His death is not being treated as suspicious and an inquest will be held after police close investigations.
He was likely to have been exposed to temperatures as low as -63C during the flight, potentially bringing on hypothermia.
Stowaways also risk being crushed by the retracting landing gear and can be killed by oxygen deprivation in the unpressurised wheel well.
