Kipng'ok died on Wednesday evening aboard a Kenya Airways aircraft minutes before he took off for Mombasa, where he was expected to join other county bosses for the Council of Governors induction.
In a statement to the media at Lee Funeral Home in Nairobi, Baringo County Governor Benjamin Cheboi confirmed his deputy's demise, but said they could not immediately confirm the cause of his death.
As one of the doctors who tried to revive Kipngok but to no avail, he acknowledged Dr Patrick Amoth, acting Director General for Health, who was also a passenger on the flight.
It is a loss to us. Mr Cheboi said that we were just about to start the business of building our great county of Baringo.
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 elective politics, Dr Ruto said.
The President said 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 was an alumnus of the University of Eastern Africa in Baraton, who started 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 confirmed that a passenger who developed breathing difficulties while boarding one of its flights had died.
The passenger was pronounced dead at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport JKIA in a statement, KQ said. The aircraft headed for Mombasa was still on the ground.
Kenya Airways Plc regrets to announce that a passenger developed breathing difficulties while boarding 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 from Nairobi had passed away, the second incident to be reported in a span of nine days.
A passenger died aboard one of its flights from New York to Nairobi last month, according to a report by the airline.
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.