Cedric Shivonje's life also changed for the worse, when English media houses reported that a stowaway fell off a Kenya Airways plane as it approached Heathrow Airport in London in June 2019.
He was arrested two months after the incident in Nairobi and as journalists pieced together the story, photos of the stowaway started circulating on social media. Sadly, these photographs were not of the real stowaway but were those of Shivonje.
The stowaway had been positively identified as Paul Manyasi but it was Shivonje's images that were circulating online. He told the Nation that he saw the photographs while behind bars.
Shivonje stated that he was shocked because of the stories that were circulating in the country and worse in his village, which made him an outcast in a community he called home.
“I was shocked to see my photos and name being linked to the stowaway. Here I was in prison and yet media reports indicated that I had fallen from a plane and crashed to death,” Shivonje narrated.
The magnitude of the news hit Shivonje when he was released from prison and went back home to Makhwabue village of Kakamega County. He found out that the resident believed that he had died in London and the person who came back was an evil spirit.
He was released from prison on December 7, 2019, and travelled to his rural home with his wife since he had lost his job at a school in Nairobi. When he arrived in Makhwabue village, his father, organised a cleansing ceremony.
“They said I joined a cult and become an evil spirit roaming the world. No one believes I’m human and at the time the incident involving the Kenya Airways plane, I was teaching in Nairobi,” Shivonje narrated.
"Even close relatives claim I joined a cult and my spirit boarded the plane and fell off in London. They claim I was paid millions as compensation and my presence in the village is unsuitable," he explained.
The rejection hit home when his wife also left him and during a memorial service for his late grandmother, his aunts and uncles refused to attend the ceremony due to his presence.
Shivonje had been approached by a lawyer who wanted them to sue the British media houses who published his pictures for compensation. The lawyer reportedly sent him Ksh46,000 and he refused to pick up his calls to date.
“The lawyer sent me Ksh46,000 and promised that I would be paid more money. But for the past year, he has been avoiding my calls. I don't know whether the issue of the compensation was settled,” he stated.
