On the night of 1 September 2026, Standard Group Associate Editor Alex Kiprotich was abducted while travelling to Nakuru. Dashcam footage shows the attackers blocking his car and forcing him out. He said he was taken by four masked men armed with AK-47 rifles in a siren-fitted vehicle linked to the government, which police at roadblocks waved through. During roughly nine hours in captivity, he was blindfolded, assaulted and interrogated about the newspaper’s headlines and reportedly its sources. He was then abandoned near Masinga Dam, more than 200 kilometres away, and sheltered with a local household until colleagues found him.
The abduction followed an escalating public attack on his employer. On 24 June 2026, President William Ruto accused the Standard Group on X of running “extortionist propaganda” headlines against his administration. He repeated the attack the next day. Three days after the first post, on 27 June, armed plain-clothes men tried to seize Mr. Kiprotich in Nakuru, but he escaped. The vehicle used, a Toyota Probox of the kind repeatedly linked to enforced disappearances, was traced to a police intelligence unit. No one has been held to account for that attempt, even though his lawyer gave police the names of the officers allegedly involved.
The Standard Group attributed the abduction to elements within the State seeking to silence its coverage. The Media Council of Kenya urged Inspector General to investigate transparently and warned of growing impunity for crimes against journalists. The Kenya Editors Guild, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, the Kenya Human Rights Commission and the Committee to Protect Journalists also condemned it. Amnesty Kenya warned of a threat to media freedom. It noted that the abduction came days after President Ruto, marking 16 years of the Constitution, said no Kenyan should lose their liberty for expressing an opinion.
The police denied involvement and assigned the Anti-Abduction Unit to the case. The Standard Group, doubting the police could investigate themselves, asked IPOA to take over and plans a constitutional petition over the harassment of its staff. The Independent Policing Oversight Authority has secured CCTV, dashcam footage and records on a vehicle of interest.
The case unfolds amid a rise in enforced disappearances of government critics ahead of the 2027 general election.