Baringo County Deputy Governor Charles Kipng’ok dies on flight

Kipng'ok died on Wednesday evening aboard a Kenya Airways aircraft minutes before he boarded for Mombasa, where he was expected to join other county bosses for the Council of Governors induction.

Speaking to reporters at the Lee Funeral Home in Nairobi, Baringo County Governor Benjamin Cheboi confirmed his deputy's demise, saying they could not immediately confirm the cause of his death.

Mr Cheboi acknowledged Dr Patrick Amoth, acting Director General for Health who was also a passenger on the flight, as among the doctors who tried to revive Kipngok but to no avail.

It is a loss to us. We were just about to start the business of building our great county of Baringo, said Mr Cheboi.

Kipng'ok was a former chairperson of the Kenya Tea Growers Association.

President William Ruto said to the family that the first-term county leader was an amiable, astute and highly accomplished public servant and captain of industry with an enviable track record of success in the tea sub-sector.

The sudden death of my friend Charles Kipng'ok is a big blow not only to his family, friends, Government and residents of Baringo County, but also to the whole country, especially the tea sector where he excelled for decades before opting for electoral politics, Dr Ruto said.

The President said that it was extremely unfortunate that the unforgiving hand of death has robbed our country of Hon Kipng'ok at the beginning of his term as Deputy Governor, a role that would have enabled him to contribute to the transformation of Baringo County. Kipng'ok, an alumnus of the University of Eastern Africa, Baraton, started out as a management trainee at KTDA, rising over the years to become CEO of Kiptagich and Kaisugu tea factories.

On Wednesday, the national carrier KQ said a passenger who developed breathing difficulties while boarding one of its flights had died.

KQ said the passenger was dead at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport JKIA, while the aircraft headed for Mombasa was still on the ground.

A passenger developed breathing difficulties this evening while on board KQ 612 that was scheduled to depart for Mombasa at 1900 hours.

The passenger was killed by medical personnel at JKIA, while the aircraft was still on the ground, KQ said in a statement.

This is the third case in the past four weeks.

The airline had earlier this month confirmed that a passenger aboard one of its flights to New York from Nairobi had passed away, the second incident reported in a span of nine days.

Last month it reported another incident where a passenger died aboard one of its flights from New York to Nairobi.

The passenger developed breathing difficulties seven hours after the plane took off from New York before he died, according to the airline. A family spokesman said he had a history of diabetes.