Sky News pulls down KQ stowaway report after Shivonje emerges

What you need to know:

  • The website link to the investigative piece posted on the Sky News website now returns a 'page not found' error.
  • Sky News identified the stowaway as Paul Manyasi about a fortnight ago, opening up a Pandora's box as questions emerged on the real identity of the illegal passenger.
  • No family has so far claimed the body of the unauthorised traveller.

The British broadcaster Sky News has pulled down an investigative report that had allegedly 'confirmed' the identity of the stowaway who fell from a Kenya Airways plane in London.

The website link to the investigative piece posted on the Sky News website now returns a 'page not found' error.

“We're sorry. The page you are looking for cannot be found. You may have followed a broken or outdated link, or there may be an error on our site,” reads a note from the website.

Further link analysis using Google tools reveal a status code 404 error — meaning the page is either not found, or the server is down.

At the time of publication of this article, Sky News was yet to issue any statement regarding their stowaway article.

CONFLICTING REPORTS

Sky News identified the stowaway as Paul Manyasi about a fortnight ago, opening up a Pandora's box as questions emerged on the real identity of the illegal passenger.

According to the report by Africa Correspondent John Sparks, the "family of Paul Manyasi" had "confirmed" it was their son on board the KQ flight from Nairobi to London.

But Kenyan authorities disputed the report, saying the man named in the report was not the dead stowaway.

Paul’s ‘father’, who had been named by Sky News as Isaac Manyasi, also changed his name to Isaac Betti as the family denied any relations with ‘Paul’.

MYSTERY DEEPENS

Mr Betti told a local newspaper that his son’s name was Cedric Shivonje and that he was alive but in remand.

Shivonje was arrested for defilement and locked up at the Industrial Area Remand Prison in Nairobi, he said.

The Nation met Shivonje at Kamiti Maximum Prison, where he was moved to for security reasons.

His emergence from the cell deepens the mystery of the hitherto unidentified stowaway, whose body is still in London. No family has claimed it.

Flight records show the KQ plane had been to South Africa after taking off from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport en route to London on the early morning of June 30.