British media Sky News has deleted their investigative story that had identified the Kenya Airways stowaway who fell in London in June as 29-year-old Kenyan national, Paul Manyasi.
A spot check on the media’s website on Thursday showed that the story titled ‘Plane stowaway: Who was Kenyan man who fell from the sky’ no longer exists.
A second story where Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) denied the existence of a worker at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) named Paul Manyasi has also been pulled down.
This comes after sections of Kenyan media published stories contradicting Sky News’ article and photos it claimed to be those of the unidentified stowaway.
The identity of the man in the Sky photos has since been found to be Cedric Shivonje Isaac, a remandee at the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in Nairobi.
Further to this, it emerged that Shivonje’s father Isaac Betti lied to Sky News about his son’s whereabouts.
“I knew that my son was in remand but I could not reveal to them since I did not want the villagers to know that my son was in jail,” Betti told Daily Nation in an interview.
Court records seen by People Daily showed that Shivonje was arrested on accusations of defiling a girl on August 8th this year.
He was charged before a Kibera court on August 9th and pleaded not guilty two charges of defilement and indecent assault. The complainant is listed as BMO, a Class Seven pupil at a private school in Nairobi’s Kawangware area.
Shivonje, an English and Science teacher at the complainant’s school, was detained after he failed to raise Sh200,000 cash bail granted by the magistrate court.
In an interview with Daily Nation at Kenya’s largest detention facility, Shivonje confirmed the photos shared by the UK news outlet were picked from his Facebook page.
“I saw my pictures on Citizen TV but the name was not mine. They said I was a cleaner at Jomo Kenyatta Airport. The next day, a warden told me the full story and inmates started calling me ‘kifo’ and ‘maiti’, I cried a lot,” Cedric told the publication.
MJM Law LLP, a Nairobi-based law firm has threatened to sue Sky News accusing them of defaming their client, according to reports.
The firm is said to have demanded a full retraction of the story, an apology, and written commitment not to publish more articles on Isaac Shivonje.
Where are the KQ and Kenya…
Where are the KQ and Kenya Police reports? What did they do with the information that they received from the London Police?
I think the Kenya Police and…
I think the Kenya Police and Airport Authorities’ reports have been vindicated. They said the name Paul Manyasi did not appear in their records, and the fingerprints sent by the London Police cannot be found in the Kenyan civil registry. Recent events seem to bear this witness.
Cedric’s father said that he…
Cedric’s father said that he was given 20k by the Sky News reporter for the fake story. Was the anonymous ‘girlfriend’, who made the false claims, and produced the fake pictures, also ‘paid’ by Sky News for her story?