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Standard Group’s Associate Editor Alex Kiprotich has been abducted by unknown people.
Chief Executive Officer Chaacha Mwita, in a statement, said Kiprotich was abducted along Gilgil-Nakuru Road shortly before 9:20pm while travelling to Nakuru.
Mwita said this is the second time in as many months that Mr Kiprotich has been targeted.
According to him, on 27 June 2026, armed men in a Toyota Probox, a vehicle model repeatedly linked to enforced disappearances of government critics in Kenya, tried to seize him from his car as he drove to work in Nakuru.
He got away by locking his doors and driving off.
“That attempt came days after President William Ruto publicly criticised this Group over its coverage, and our own investigations traced the vehicle to the National Police Service's Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau,” said Mwita, adding, “No one has ever been held to account for it. Tonight, that threat has been carried out”.
“We do not believe this is a coincidence. Mr Kiprotich has been at the forefront of our editorial output, including reporting that has scrutinised the conduct of the State, and tonight's abduction bears all the hallmarks of a targeted attack on a journalist for doing his job,” added Mr Mwita.
He said the company believes the incident may be linked to elements within the State seeking to intimidate the news organisation into silence.
“If that is confirmed, this is not simply a crime against one man. It is an assault on the Constitution of Kenya, on the freedoms of expression and of the media guaranteed under Articles 33 and 34, and on the right of every Kenyan to independent information,” Mwita noted in a statement.
“We say this plainly and without equivocation: the Standard Group holds the State responsible for Alex Kiprotich's safety and his life, and for anything that happens to him while he remains missing. Protecting the life and liberty of every citizen is the State's first duty, not an afterthought, and Mr Kiprotich's safety now rests entirely in its hands,” he said.
While demanding immediate safe and unconditional release, Mwita called for a prompt, transparent and independent investigation into the abduction, and into why no one has ever answered for the attempt of June 27, 2026.
He said there should be further real, visible guarantees that journalists in Kenya will be protected, in keeping with commitments the President has already made publicly and has so far failed to honour.
“We are calling on the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, the Law Society of Kenya, the Media Council of Kenya, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and everyone who values a free press in this country, to demand answers alongside us until Mr Kiprotich is found safe,” said Mr Mwita.
He said the company will keep the public informed and we will not let the matter quietly fade from view.
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