NAIROBI, Kenya- Standard Group Associate Editor Alex Kiprotich spent about nine hours in captivity after armed, masked men intercepted his vehicle along the Gilgil-Nakuru Road before taking him away in what his employer has described as a targeted abduction.
He was eventually found alive near Masinga Dam, bringing an anxious overnight search to an end.
The dramatic sequence began shortly before 9.20pm on Tuesday, September 1, when Kiprotich was travelling towards Nakuru.
According to footage captured by a dashboard camera and accounts published by The Standard, a white Subaru moved into the road and four masked men carrying AK-47 rifles emerged.
The men surrounded Kiprotich’s vehicle and forcibly removed him.
The footage captures the confrontation as the armed men approached the car, with passengers heard pleading with them.
The men then took Kiprotich and drove away.
He was taken by four masked men in a Subaru bearing registration KDC 125E, which the media organisation said was a government vehicle fitted with a siren.
Nine hours of uncertainty
For colleagues at the Standard Group, the first indication that something was wrong came during a brief phone call to the organisation’s head of security.
Kiprotich reportedly said: “Tom, we have been hijacked! We have been hijacked at Gilgil!” before the call ended.
The journalist was subsequently driven away from the highway.
According to his account reported by The Standard, his captors repeatedly questioned him about the media organisation’s journalism, including where it obtained stories and how headlines were determined.
They also questioned him about whether former Baringo Senator Gideon Moi, a shareholder in the Standard Group, received visitors at Kabarak.
Kiprotich also told colleagues that other officers at roadblocks allowed the vehicle to pass without stopping after its siren was activated.
At around 2am on Wednesday, nine hours after he was taken, Kiprotich was found approximately 10 metres from Masinga Dam.
He sought refuge with a nearby family, which cared for him before a Standard Group team located him at about 6.30am.
The media house said he was safe but visibly shaken.
A chilling memory of Kenya’s 2024 abductions
The incident has also revived memories of the wave of abductions that accompanied Kenya’s Gen Z-led protests in 2024.
Human Rights Watch reported that security forces abducted, arbitrarily arrested and tortured perceived protest leaders between June and August 2024, with some people held in unlawful detention facilities and denied access to families and lawyers.
The Standard’s own investigation into the 2024 abductions documented accounts of people disappearing after being taken by armed, hooded men in unmarked vehicles.
Some victims later reappeared after days in detention, while others were found dead.
Those cases remain part of the wider debate over enforced disappearances and accountability in Kenya.
Second attempt on Kiprotich
The latest incident is particularly significant because it was the second attempt to abduct Kiprotich in just over two months.
On June 27, armed men tried to force him from his vehicle as he drove to work in Nakuru.
He escaped by locking his doors and driving away.
The Standard later said its investigations linked the vehicle used in that incident to the National Police Service’s Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau.
