Kenyan journalist Alex Kiprotich was abducted by armed, masked men along the Gilgil-Nakuru highway before being dumped in a thicket near Masinga Dam hours later.
Kenya’s Standard Group Associate Editor Alex Kiprotich has been found safe after he was abducted by armed, masked men along the Gilgil-Nakuru highway on Tuesday night.
Kiprotich was reportedly waylaid shortly before 9:20pm while travelling towards Nakuru, with the attackers blocking his vehicle before dragging him out.
He was later dumped in a thicket near Masinga Dam in Machakos County.
According to video clips circulating on social media, Kiprotich managed to make a brief distress call to the Standard Group’s head of security during the incident.
“Tom, we have been hijacked at Gilgil!” he reportedly said before his phone was switched off.
The call immediately triggered a search for the editor, with his colleagues contacting police and trying to establish where he had been taken.
His whereabouts remained unknown for several hours.
Standard Group Chief Executive Chaacha Mwita said the company worked through the night with its security team to locate Kiprotich. He said the search was made more difficult after the abductors switched off Kiprotich’s phone.
“And the people who had abducted him had switched off his phone. There was no way of finding out where he was. There was no way of reaching him, which, of course, added a layer of trauma to all this,” Mwita said.
Mwita said the company continued searching until it received information about Kiprotich’s whereabouts.
The breakthrough came in the early hours of Wednesday when the Standard Group was informed that Kiprotich had been abandoned near Masinga Dam.
Mwita said the journalist had been dumped in a thicket at around 2am before seeking help from a nearby family.
The family reportedly gave him shelter and a phone, which he used to contact his colleagues. They also stayed with him until the Standard Group team arrived.
“To be quite honest, we are very grateful to the family that received him and gave him sanctuary, gave him a phone through which to contact us, and gave him a place to stay and company until morning,” Mwita said.
Mwita led a team from the media house to the area where Kiprotich was found. The editor was safe but shaken by the ordeal and was later taken for medical checks.
The Standard Group said it was grateful that he had survived the incident.
Mwita condemned the abduction, saying it was disturbing that a journalist could be attacked in a country whose Constitution guarantees media freedom.
He said the incident had left him shocked and questioned the circumstances surrounding the abduction.
“First of all, I would like to say that this is really, really a sad thing to happen in a country like Kenya that says it’s a free country, it respects the freedom of the media and the freedom of journalists to do their work as guaranteed in the Constitution.
“And yet the actions of the state indicate that that is just… you know, a story, lip service. So I’m really, really sad and shocked by this act,” he said, adding that the incident should be investigated.
The latest abduction comes just over two months after Kiprotich reportedly survived another attempted abduction in Nakuru on June 27.
The earlier incident reportedly involved armed men travelling in a Toyota Probox.
The Standard Group later said its internal investigations traced the vehicle used in the incident to the National Police Service’s Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau.
The latest incident has raised fresh concerns about the safety of journalists in Kenya and comes amid growing tensions between the Standard Group and President William Ruto’s administration.
The media house has in recent months published critical reports questioning government promises and performance.
Ruto has accused the Standard Group of running what he described as “five days a week extortionist propaganda headlines.”
The Standard Group has rejected the accusations and maintained that its reporting is based on facts and the public interest.
Mwita said the incident should be viewed in the wider context of constitutional freedoms and the right of journalists to work without intimidation.
“The overarching message here is that the freedoms that have been guaranteed under the Constitution then must be upheld. It doesn’t matter if it’s Alex Kiprotich today or Mukuria today,” he said.
He said attacks on journalists should not be normalised.
Mwita also questioned why anyone would target a senior editor working for one of Kenya’s major media organisations.
He said such an action would inevitably attract widespread attention and scrutiny.
“This is very bad press for the government. I don’t know who in their right mind would sit and just think, let’s go and abduct a Standard media editor knowing somewhere what Standard Media is and then you go ahead to abduct.
“And then you enjoy the press for the whole, in fact, midweek to the weekend. This is going to be the conversation,” he said.
Jubilee presidential candidate Fred Matiang’i has also condemned the abduction, saying attacks on journalists threaten Kenya’s democratic values.
He said anyone accused of wrongdoing should be dealt with through the law rather than being arrested or attacked at night.
“This is something that is shocking and completely infuriating. Freedom of expression and freedom of the press is our way of life as a country,” Matiang’i said.
“If a person is making mistakes while doing his work, let legal action be taken against him. It is available in court. Not to arrest someone at night like this,” he said.
Matiang’i called for respect for freedom of expression and the press.
KANU has also demanded a thorough, independent and transparent investigation into Kiprotich’s abduction.
KANU Secretary General George Wainaina described the incident as “brazen and disturbing” and said the latest incident should not be treated as an isolated case.
“This is not an isolated incident that can be dismissed with the usual assurances and expressions of concern,” Wainaina said.
“We, therefore, demand a thorough, independent and transparent investigation into both the latest abduction and the earlier reported attempt at Menengai Police Station. Those found culpable must be identified and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.
The party wants those responsible for both incidents identified and prosecuted.
Questions remain about who abducted Kiprotich, where he was held and why he was dumped near Masinga Dam.
For now, the Standard Group says its associate editor is safe and receiving care after the ordeal.