Paul Manyasi: KAA rubbishes Sky News report on KQ stowaway

The Kenya Airports Authority has denied a report on Sky News that identified the stowaway who fell from a Kenya Airways plane as Paul Manyasi.

In a statement released late Tuesday evening, KAA insisted that the man identified by the British news channel never worked at the airport.

“Colnet Limited Kenya is a cleaning company contracted by Kenya Airports Authority. The name Paul Manyasi does not appear in the JKIA register,” KAA said.

The authority further maintained that all staff who work at the airport require an access pass and the name Paul Manyasi apparently does not appear in the Airport Pass Biometric Register.

KAA averred that they are still investigating the matter and are yet to receive information that will lead to a ‘factual conclusion.’

On Tuesday, Sky News released a indepth report that identified the stowaway who fell off the undercarriage of a KQ plane headed to London as Paul Manyasi from Kakamega.

The report is said to have taken the British news agency approximately four months to complete.

According to Sky News, the 29-year-old deceased man was an employee of Colnet, earning roughly Ksh.9,000 a month.

They attributed one of their sources as a colleague at Colnet who was apparently also in a relationship with the deceased; her real identity is however concealed.

“I called his phone and it was off. When we came in the morning the following day the supervisor called us and told us there is somebody missing,” she told Sky News adding that he had been missing since June.

Months later when Sky News talked to Irene* whose name was changed to conceal her identity, she intimated that they had allegedly been asked to keep the information secret.

The body of the stowaway fell off the Boeing 787 aircraft and landed in Offerton Road, South London, on June 30 after an 8-hour flight.