How armed men trailed and abducted Standard Group Editor Alex Kiprotich

Kiprotich left the Standard Group offices along Mombasa Road on Tuesday shortly after 7pm, unaware of the danger tracking his every move before his abduction at around 9pm near the Gilgil Weighbridge.

Armed men trailed Kiprotich all the way from Nairobi. They made multiple failed attempts to overtake and intercept his vehicle along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway before finally executing their ambush at the weighbridge.

It has also emerged that the abductors, who have been linked to a Cabinet Secretary's office, were allegedly on a special operation.

Kiprotich is a man who has now survived a violent abduction attempt for the second time in just 67 days, following a previous attempt on his life in Nakuru on June 27 this year.

On Tuesday evening, the nightmare returned.

Kiprotich left the Standard Group headquarters on Mombasa Road a few minutes past 7pm.

Unknown to him, a Subaru Forester pursued him from the capital, closely tracking him for nearly 120 kilometres.

Along the highway, the abductors repeatedly tried to overtake and block Kiprotich's vehicle, but their plans failed until they reached the Gilgil Weighbridge.

The location provided a perfect bottleneck for their mission, with the road design making it nearly impossible for a driver to find an escape route once blocked.

In a split second, the armed men in the Subaru Forester, bearing registration number KDG 125E, intercepted his vehicle.

They jumped out brandishing AK-47 rifles, unleashing terror and targeting the occupants inside.

He recalled that the men acted with the precision of tactical police officers in plain clothes, raising serious questions over whether the team was acting under instructions from a senior government official to target the journalist.

They smashed his car windows with the butts of their guns, threatening to shoot both him and his driver.

The entire highway ordeal lasted approximately five minutes before Kiprotich was taken hostage and the gunmen sped off into the night towards an unknown destination.

At around 2:30am, he was driven into a thicket near Masinga Dam while blindfolded.

There, he was harassed, assaulted and interrogated by the abductors, who aggressively questioned him about recent headlines published by the Standard newspaper.

Moments later, he was abandoned in the wilderness and warned not to move.

"At 3am. we received a call from right where we stand, a few metres from Masinga Dam, that Kiprotich had been blindfolded and dumped here," Chacha Mwita, the Standard Group Chief Executive Officer, stated.

By this time, his abductors had left his driver stranded with the vehicle back in Gilgil. The armed men had also confiscated their mobile phones, which remain missing.

Kiprotich managed to leave the Masinga thicket at around 3am, trekking to a nearby homestead where he sought refuge and finally contacted his family and colleagues.

Meanwhile, his driver drove back to the Standard Group headquarters in Nairobi to raise the alarm.

The Standard Group CEO, alongside Kiprotich's colleagues, reported the matter to police in Nakuru before rushing to Masinga Dam, where they successfully reunited with him.

"He was told he was in Baringo and not to wake up as he had been left facing down. We came to rescue him. We are grateful to the family that gave him shelter," Mwita stated.

A quick search of the KDG 125E registration plates on the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) portal reveals a disturbing twist.

The plates belong to a privately owned Honda Fit registered in December 2021, raising questions over the use of potentially cloned registration plates in the operation.

The development has heightened concerns over the sophistication of the alleged syndicate and how easily vehicles bearing cloned number plates can be used in criminal operations.

The National Police Service (NPS), in a statement, said it was aware of reports regarding the abduction of the journalist and had moved swiftly to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident.

The NPS said it was working to determine what transpired, including the identity of the heavily armed men behind the abduction.

The developments come amid allegations from internal police sources pointing to the potential involvement of rogue officers from a special unit allegedly receiving direction and command from a senior government politician.

The claims are yet to be independently established, as investigations into the circumstances surrounding Kiprotich's abduction continue.