IG Kanja unveils 'Anti-Abduction' team to probe "Abduction Squad' in police service

Police officers lead Standard Group Associate Editor Alex Kiprotich to a vehicle in Gilgil on September 1, 2026. [Videograb, Standard]

This is a word of ‘pole’ to my friend, Alex Kiprotich, the senior editor at The Standard who was abducted by suspected State agents early in the week, and abandoned near the Masinga Dam, more than 100 kilometres away.

The Inspector General Douglas Kanja, without any sense of irony, has deployed an Anti-Abduction Squad to investigate the Abduction Unit that reportedly operates within the National Police Service.

The latter revelation—of an Abduction Unit, came from former Deputy Prezzo Rigathi Gachagua aka Riggy G. I have no reason to doubt the veracity of his claims because all he’s said in the past has proven true. For instance, when Riggy G revealed that those behind the assassination of a city-based medic were police officers who had fled to Uganda, all that has checked out.

Now, Riggy G has named the individual who led Alex’s abduction, apparently with endorsement from the highest office in the land, in a quest to silence Alex and a probe on the Mau forest that he is pursuing.

That, too, is probably true, because Riggy G has proven to be a reliable source. Apparently, his sources manage to leak just about everything, including Prezzo Ruto’s thoughts before they are verbalised.

I don’t know who could be after Alex, this being the second attack in two months, and why they’d be so afraid of him. I’d have said they’re probably worried of the maxim of the pen being mightier than the sword, only that Prezzo Ruto and his predecessor, Prezzo Uhuru Kenyatta aka UK, long declared their disdain for newspapers.

They said they don’t read newspapers as they are only fit as meat-wrappers. So, I don’t know why anyone with bother chasing after watu wa magazeti, for producing what they don’t read.

In any case, if the intent is to intimidate Alex and his peers in the newsroom, that’s a ploy that will backfire spectacularly. After all, our work, is to the afflict the comfortable and comforting the afflicted.

I’d have expected the police to know this already since they stopped recruiting class two dropouts. And that intelligence should be gathered intelligently. Alex’s abduction was plain stupid.