PRESS STATEMENT BY THE KENYA MEDIA SECTOR WORKING GROUP (KMSWG) ON THE ABDUCTION OF STANDARD GROUP ASSOCIATE EDITOR, ALEX KIPROTICH

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Nairobi, Kenya — September 2, 2026

A LINE HAS BEEN CROSSED: PRESS FREEDOM WILL NOT BE SILENCED BY TERROR

Ladies and gentlemen, late last night, the free press in Kenya was dragged back into a dark and dangerous shadow.

 Standard Group Associate Editor, Alex Kiprotich was intercepted along the Gilgil–Nakuru highway by armed men and forcibly taken before being dumped hours later near Masinga Dam. While we share the great relief of his family and the team led by Standard Group CEO Chaacha Mwita who found him safe this morning, we refuse to treat this as an isolated highway crime. This is a calculated, heavy-handed signal meant to instill fear across the Kenyan media fraternity.

Over the past three years, Kenya’s standing on the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index has plunged sharply, falling from 69th globally in 2022 down into the “difficult” classification at 106 out of 180 countries. Concurrently, global civil society monitors such as CIVICUS Monitor and Freedom House have categorized Kenya’s civic space as increasingly obstructed and vulnerable, driven by systemic state surveillance, arbitrary arrests, and physical attacks on journalists. These scare tactics represent a coordinated effort to force self-censorship and silence critical reporting at a time when the public needs objective truth most.

During our previous press conference in July following the Ol Kalou constituency by-election, we raised an urgent national alarm over the violent targeting of frontline reporters, including Enos Teche of The Star and Brygettes Ngana of Nation Media Group, who were assaulted, held at gunpoint, and robbed of their equipment by armed plainclothes officers and hired goons.

We explicitly warned the government then that failing to arrest and prosecute those trigger-happy officers would embolden state actors to target senior editors next. Our warnings were ignored, our demands met with deafening silence, and today, that culture of impunity has metastasized into highway abductions of newsroom leaders.

Those driving this campaign of intimidation must be reminded that Kenya is governed by a supreme Constitution, not goons and shadow operatives. The targeting of media practitioners directly violates Article 33 on freedom of expression, Article 34 which guarantees media independence from state control or interference, and Article 29, which secures every citizen’s right to freedom and security of person from arbitrary detention, torture, or cruel treatment. Violating these principles is not just an assault on a newsroom; it is an illegal strike against the democratic foundation of the republic.

As the country steadily moves toward the 2027 election season, the strategy behind these attacks is an attempt to render newsrooms compliant before high-stakes political scrutiny begins.

The Kenya Media Sector Working Group declares today that this strategy will fail. We are on high alert, fully mobilized, and steadfast in our commitment to defend every media practitioner across this country. An attack on an editor or media practitioner in Nakuru is an attack on every journalist in Nairobi, Kisumu, Mandera, Turkana, Mombasa, and beyond.

We demand an immediate, transparent, and independent investigation by the Director of Criminal Investigations and IPOA into last night’s abduction, including full accountability for the command structures that ordered it.

To our fellow editors, reporters, and broadcasters across the nation, do not put down your pens, and do not mute your microphones. We will leverage every legal, constitutional, and international mechanism available to protect our newsrooms, because power must be held to account, and the truth cannot be abducted.

SIGNED BY:

THE KENYA MEDIA SECTOR WORKING GROUP (KMSWG)