SK Macharia Helicopter Crash Kills MP Ngeno, Five Others

Six people are dead after a helicopter belonging to Royal Media Services chairman SK Macharia went down in Mosop, Nandi County, Saturday, killing a serving member of parliament and five others aboard what witnesses say was a foggy, low-visibility morning flight.

Authorities confirmed that all victims have been identified and their remains transferred to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret pending further procedures.

The chopper, a Eurocopter registered as 5Y-DSB and linked to the billionaire media and business magnate Samuel Kamau Macharia, struck two trees while flying low before crashing and erupting in flames. There were no survivors.

Those who died were Emurua Dikirr Member of Parliament Johana Ngeno, pilot George Were, forest ranger Amos Kipngetich Rotich, the legislator’s cameraman Nick Kosgey, teacher Robert Kipkoech Keter, and Wycliffe Kiprotich Rono, a protocol officer at Narok County government.

Witnesses at the scene said the aircraft took off under misty conditions, with poor visibility widely cited as a likely contributing factor. Authorities have signaled that a formal investigation into the cause of the crash is expected.

President William Ruto led the country in mourning the death of Ngeno, whom he described as a focused and devoted lawmaker.

“My friend, Mheshimiwa Ng’eno, was a progressive and devoted servant of the people who worked tirelessly on behalf of the residents of Emurua Dikirr, Narok County,” Ruto said in a condolence statement issued Saturday evening, adding that he had received the news with “profound shock and deep sadness.”

Ngeno was serving his third consecutive term in parliament, having first been elected in 2013. At the time of his death, he chaired the Departmental Committee on Housing, Urban Planning and Public Works and was a member of the Liaison Committee. He played a central role in the passage of the Affordable Housing Act, 2024, which established a legal framework for decent and affordable housing access for Kenyans.

Born in 1972, Ngeno began his schooling at Mogondo Primary School and later attended Maseno National School. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in International Law from Kyiv TSN University in Ukraine, a Master of Arts in International Studies from the University of Nairobi, a Bachelor of Laws degree from Mount Kenya University, and a postgraduate diploma from the Kenya School of Law. In September 2025, he was admitted to the bar as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya.

Funeral and memorial arrangements are to be announced by the family.

The tragedy involving his helicopter comes as Macharia, 83, is fighting one of the most prolonged and turbulent legal battles of his business career, centered on Directline Assurance Company, an insurer founded in 1998 by his late son, John Gichia Macharia.

Macharia has been in and out of court over Directline since at least 2024, when he secretly transferred 400 million Kenyan shillings from the insurer’s accounts, wired the money to a real estate firm, and announced the company had shut down. Courts ordered him to return the funds. The case was described by one judge as a textbook example of failed corporate governance.

In September 2024, Directline abruptly halted all insurance operations, triggering alarm across Kenya’s public service vehicle sector, where the company had long dominated with a market share of roughly 60 to 70 percent of PSV covers. The Insurance Regulatory Authority pushed back, declaring the shutdown illegal and insisting all policies remained valid.

Courts have repeatedly been drawn into the dispute. A Nairobi court barred Macharia and five associates from accessing Directline’s offices at Hazina Towers. Judges found the allegations against him serious enough to warrant a caretaker board, with one ruling noting that the company’s management had become “currently non-functional” and that policyholders were at risk.

In September 2025, Macharia allegedly entered Directline’s offices with a security team, forced out the CEO and board members, and announced a new leadership lineup. Security footage reportedly captured him directing the operation in the reception area. The incident led to a fresh contempt petition being filed against him, with a hearing set for December of that year.

At various points, courts also blocked him from using his own Royal Media Services television and radio platforms to air cautionary advertisements warning the public that Directline insurance covers were invalid. Justice Francis Gikonyo ruled that Directline was a distinct legal entity whose financial stability had to be protected.

As recently as February 2026, Macharia was back in court, appearing in contempt proceedings as a judge pushed both sides to resolve a fundamental question that has persisted through years of litigation: who legally owns Directline Assurance? The next hearing in that case is scheduled for April 13, 2026.

Macharia maintains that he and his wife Gathoni co-founded the company and that its shareholding records were later fraudulently altered after the death of his son in 2019. Other parties dispute this account, and the fight over the company’s contested CR12 ownership registry has produced multiple conflicting court orders, an arbitration award, and proceedings before the Insurance Appeals Tribunal.

The Directline saga has unfolded in parallel with Macharia’s wider business empire. He remains the chairman of Royal Media Services, the parent company of Citizen TV, and is one of Kenya’s most recognizable billionaires, with an estimated net worth of over 40 billion shillings spanning media, real estate, and energy interests.

Saturday’s helicopter crash adds a different kind of grief and scrutiny to what has already been a bruising stretch for one of Kenya’s most prominent businessmen.