Stowaway saga: KAA, Colnet deny Paul Manyasi was JKIA cleaner

By , K24 Digital
On Wed, 13 Nov, 2019 10:02 | < 1 min read
Paul Manyasi
A collage of Paul Manyasi's photos. PHOTO | COURTESY
A collage of Paul Manyasi's photos. PHOTO | COURTESY

Colnet, the cleaning firm contracted by the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA), has denied reports by Sky News that the stowaway who plunged from a Kenya Airways passenger plane was their employee.

In a statement dated Tuesday, November 12, 2019, Colnet says it is aware of the incident but insisted the said stowawary, Paul Manyasi, never worked for the company.

"For an employee to work in the restricted areas of the airport, he/she requires a special pass which is only issued after thorough vetting by the KAA authority. There are no records of the passes issued and all Colnet employees are accounted for without failure at the end of every shift and we can confirm without a doubt that we don't have, and have never had Paul Manyasi as an employee," said Colnet Managing Partner Chege Kariuki.

Colnet's denial followed hot on the heels of KAA statement issued also on Tuesday in which they insisted that Paul Manyasi's name has never appeared in the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport's register.

But KAAA said they are still investigating the incident and have not yet received information that will lead to a 'factual conclusion.'

The stowaway plummeted from Kenya Airways flight KQ 100 while it was flying over London and dropped into a residential garden on June 30.

Manyasi dropped some 1,067 metres from the undercarriage of the plane.

A witness interviewed by Sky News said the "man looked like a 'block of ice.'"