The missing tour guide who disappeared on December 23, 2025 inside Mt Kenya National Park has been found dead, ending nearly three weeks of search but leaving the family heartbroken.
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) officers had joined family, friends and colleagues of Samuel Macharia on Friday in combing Mt Kenya forest where the body was eventually found.
It was one of the many searches conducted in over three weeks as his family and colleagues remained optimistic of finding him alive.
On Friday afternoon, the search team found the body which had no physical injuries. There were no signs of struggle or attack by wild animals, further deepening the puzzle on how he met his death.
The deceased, with 15 years of experience as a mountain guide and porter, had wandered alone from the usual path towards Shipton Camp and disappeared.
A statement from KWS released on Friday night confirmed that Macharia the missing veteran mountain guide, who went missing while in the company of six people including two Japanese tourists, had been found.
“KWS regrets to report the death of Samuel Macharia whose body has been located. The body was located off trail on Friday, January 9, at Hinde Valley, at an altitude of 4,300 metres above sea level,” the agency said in a statement.
KWS added that a team of experienced KWS rangers had been deployed during the ground search which was backed by aerial surveillance.
The family expressed gratitude to the support they received from well-wishers while regretting the mysterious death of their kin.
“We are grateful to the entire team that has stood with us during those difficult times. As a family we had kept hope that he would be found alive but we accept the outcome as the will of God,” said Mr Daniel Kagwaini, an elder brother to the deceased.
Mr Kagwaini who spoke to the Daily Nation on phone from Nanyuki town said they were waiting for the body to be brought down from the mountain with preparations for postmortem already underway.
Though the body was discovered on Friday, police officers who were not part of the search team had to visit the scene on Saturday for documentation and to launch investigation into the cause of death.
Soon after his disappearance, the matter was reported at Timau and Chogoria police stations and various witnesses have already recorded statements with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
“It is perplexing how he died up in the mountain after going off trail and vanishing without any explanation. We hope the autopsy report will help in unravelling the mystery behind his disappearance and death,” said the brother, also a seasoned mountain guide.
Macharia’s death is the second mountain related death to hit the family in five years. In 2021, Patrick Muriithi, an expert mountain climber slipped and fell on snowy Austrian Camp while descending from the mountain while in the company of tourists. His body was retrieved on the same day.
