Standard Group Chief Executive Officer Chaacha Mwita has revealed the dramatic sequence of events following the Tuesday night abduction of the media house’s Associate Editor, Alex Kiprotich.
Speaking near Masinga Dam, where authorities and colleagues found Kiprotich safe on Wednesday morning following his kidnapping along the Gilgil–Nakuru Road, Mwita recalled receiving an urgent distress call around 9:20 p.m. from a colleague.
“He had received a distress call from Alex on an ongoing abduction that Kenyans have now seen on camera. It was done in disregard of the law,” Mwita said.
The Standard Group immediately mobilized its internal security team, alerted police stations across Nakuru and Nairobi, and broadcasted news of the abduction across its media platforms to raise public awareness.
Anxious hours ended early Wednesday morning when news broke that the assailants had dumped Kiprotich in a remote area near Masinga Dam. The abductors reportedly misled Kiprotich by telling him he was in Baringo, ordering him to remain still until instructed otherwise.
Once the attackers fled, Kiprotich sought refuge at a nearby home, where a local family sheltered him and provided a mobile phone to contact his family and employers.
“The people who had abducted him had switched off his phone. There was no way of reaching him, which added another layer of trauma around this. Fortunately, at around 3:00am we received a call that Alex had been dropped in one of the thickets at the edges of Masinga Dam,” Mwita added.
Mwita personally led a recovery team to the site, locating the journalist around 6:30 a.m.
While Kiprotich survived the ordeal physically unharmed, the Standard Group noted that he remains understandably shaken. Mwita extended deep gratitude to the family that sheltered the reporter and thanked the public for assisting in search efforts. He framed the violent incident as a direct assault on press freedom in Kenya, questioning the government’s commitment to constitutional guarantees protecting media workers.
“I am really, really sad and shocked by this act,” Mwita said.
The CEO directly linked the abduction to Kiprotich’s high-profile investigative reporting on state conduct, asserting that the organization views the timing as a deliberate, targeted action against a journalist fulfilling his duties.
This attack marks the second attempt on Kiprotich’s life in recent months. On June 27, 2026, armed men in a Toyota Probox attempted to seize him while he drove to work in Nakuru; Kiprotich escaped by locking his doors and speeding away.
Internal investigations by the Standard Group later connected the vehicle used in the June attempt to officers attached to the National Police Service’s Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau in Nakuru.
The latest incident has sparked widespread outrage across Kenya, with human rights organizations and press freedom advocates demanding swift investigations, full transparency, and accountability from state security agencies.
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