The Standard Group Associate Editor who was abducted on Tuesday has been found alive together with his driver, left abandoned near Masinga Dam, the media house confirmed on Wednesday.
Relief came nine hours after Alex Kiprotich with his driver, a Mr Kamau, were abducted along the Gilgil-Nakuru Road by armed men.
According to the Standard Group, Kiprotich was dumped approximately 10 metres from Masinga Dam at around 2am, some 137 kilometres from Nairobi.
He sought refuge at a nearby household before a Standard Group team located him at about 6:30am.
The Group said he is safe and well, though visibly shaken by the ordeal.
Kiprotich told colleagues he was seized by four masked men armed with an AK-47 who were travelling in a Subaru registration KDC 125E.
A check of the registration shows it to be a government vehicle. The vehicle was fitted with a siren, and Kiprotich said his captors were clearly police officers armed with AK-47 rifles.
At roadblocks along the route, he reported, the men engaged other officers who waved the vehicle through without stopping it.
During his captivity, Kiprotich said his captors repeatedly interrogated him about the sources of Standard Group stories and how headlines are decided.
They also asked whether Gideon Moi, a shareholder in the Group, receives visits at Kabarak.
While some pressed him on his work, others in the vehicle sought to reassure him, telling him not to worry because “ni mambo ya serikali” roughly translated to mean it is a government matter.
Kiprotich went missing shortly before 9.20pm on September 1, 2026, after placing a brief, frantic call to Tom Kipyegon, the Standard Group’s head of security.
“Tom, we have been hijacked! We have been hijacked at Gilgil!” Kiprotich shouted before the line went dead.The Standard Group had earlier issued a statement holding the state responsible for Kiprotich’s safety and describing the abduction as a likely attempt to intimidate the Group into silence over its editorial coverage.
Earlier, the media house had issued a statement detailing what transpired as its senior employee came under siege.
"The Standard Group PLC confirms that shortly before 9:20pm this evening (on Tuesday), our Associate Editor, Alex Kiprotich, was abducted along the Gilgil–Nakuru road while travelling to Nakuru," the company said in a statement.
At the time, the company stated that his whereabouts remained unknown.
The abduction on Tuesday night came just over two months after Kiprotich narrowly escaped a similar attempt on June 27, 2026, when armed men in a Toyota Probox tried to seize him as he drove to work in Nakuru.
That vehicle was traced by the Standard Group’s own investigations to the National Police Service’s Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau but no one has been held to account for the earlier incident.
"This is the second time in as many months that Mr Kiprotich has been targeted," it added.
The Standard detailed that on 27 June 2026, armed men in a Toyota Probox tried to seize him from his car as he drove to work in Nakuru.
"He got away by locking his doors and driving off."
President William Ruto recently criticised the Standard over its coverage, claiming that they were biased.
"Our own investigations traced the vehicle to the National Police Service's Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau. No one has ever been held to account for it," the Standard further revealed.
