The Committee to Protect Journalists called late Monday for an investigation into the attempted kidnapping of a senior journalist in Kenya that followed angry criticism of his newspaper by President William Ruto.
Rights groups have reported dozens of abductions of government critics in Kenya in recent years.
Alex Kiprotich, associate editor of The Standard newspaper group, says that heavily armed men attempted to seize him as he drove to work in the city of Nakuru on June 27.
Three men in plain clothes, armed with AK-47 assault rifles, intercepted his car, and tried to open his door, but Kiprotich was able to lock the doors in time and speed away.
“As the person responsible for The Standard’s headlines, I knew I had become a target,” Kiprotich told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), adding that he and a witness gave statements to police.
