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A French tourist has died after a paragliding expedition along the scenic Elgeyo Marakwet hanging valleys turned tragic.
Maud Frederique Binaud, 49, died at the Iten County Referral Hospital on Wednesday, just hours after she fell from the skies following a suspected paraglider mishap.
According to a police report, the late Ms Binaud took off from Iten town and flew her para-glider to Nyaru in Keiyo South on Tuesday and landed safely, but went off radar while flying back to the launch pad at Kilima Resort.
The deceased was paragliding alongside her spouse, Pierre Laurens, who flew a separate paraglider at the time of the accident.
Binaud’s death happened at a time when paragliding along the picturesque Elgeyo Marakwet escarpments was resuming from a 2018 suspension, which followed a series of tragic paraglider accidents.
In January, two foreign paragliders, Thomas Lednik from the Czech Republic and Kimberly Ann Pace from the USA, died after their paraglider collapsed and they fell down the rocky Kerio escarpment near Kipka village in Keiyo North sub-county.
The same month, a paragliding enthusiast from Germany died on the same escarpment after his paraglider fell off the sky, leading to the suspension of paragliding activities in the county for safety audits.
Mr Laurens told the police in Iten on Wednesday that they flew towards Nyaru village of Keiyo South sub-county, where they landed seamlessly, but he suddenly lost radio signal and mobile contact signal of his wife.
Elgeyo Marakwet Police Commander Peter Mulinge confirmed the tragedy and said investigations were underway.
Mulinge said the couple had arrived in Kenya on January 17 as tourists.
He said the French national died while receiving treatment at Iten County Referral Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.
“It was established that the deceased’s parachute had a puncture and blew off, causing a fall. It was further established that the two had entered Kenya on January 17, 2026, as tourists, and they were due to depart on January 31, 2026,” the police commander said yesterday.
According to the police chief, Laurens decided to land his parachute at Iten town to find out the whereabouts of the deceased after he lost her radio and phone signal.
“After landing in Iten, he raised her again using the radio, upon which it was received by a stranger who informed him that she was involved in an accident and that she was being rushed to Iten county referral hospital,” he said.
Mr Mulinge added: “He rushed to the hospital and found the wife being attended to with a pelvic fracture, internal bleeding, and low blood pressure. She passed on at the hospital's ICU while being attended to. Body preserved at the hospital mortuary pending being moved to Lee funeral home, Nairobi.”
