By Cyrus Ombati

I got a beep on my cell phone from one of our drivers at midnight and called back.

He informed me that men in masks had raided the I&M Bank Towers where The Standard Group offices are located.

The driver said the men carted away some computers, KTN equipment and robbed the guards of their valuables.

Protesters express their anger in the streets of Nairobi in solidarity with Standard Group after the attack on March 2, 2006. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

The driver wanted me to call the police and inform them of the incident. I immediately called the then Nairobi PPO King’ori Mwangi. Mr Mwangi told me he had heard there was an incident at our offices before hanging up. I also called several other officers who said they had no idea of what was happening.

No airtime

It was raining then and I was running out of airtime. I beeped then KTN editor Farida Karoney, The Standard’s Kipkoech Tanui and my colleague Ben Agina. They called back and I informed them of what was happening after I confirmed KTN was off air.

Out of curiosity I also beeped a colleague who works with Capital FM before he called back and asked him to pick me up from my house so we could come to the office and witness what was happening.

I bought airtime on the way to town. On arrival at the offices, I saw at least five police cars parked outside with a few officers manning them. One of the men identified me from a distance and hurriedly alerted his colleagues that we were out there. The entry to the offices was locked and power had been switched off.

In a short while, the men walked out of the building, some carrying computers and other valuables before they boarded their vehicles and drove off towards Central Police Station.

I saw one of our technical operators board one of the police vehicles and I immediately walked towards the main entrance. Agina, Tanui and Karoney arrived few minutes later as I and a few guards, who had walked out, planned to take the stairs up to the KTN newsroom.

On arrival on the sixth floor of the building, a guard from the Likoni Printing Press (where the company’s publications were printed then), called to say there were thugs there beating them up and burning newspapers.

Called editor

I called the Photo Editor Jacob Otieno and asked him to go there. After a brief inspection of the I&M offices, Capital FM colleague Bernard Momanyi and I drove to the Likoni Printing Press.

To my surprise, we parked near a car that belonged to a senior police officer in the police force. He was busy talking on phone briefing someone that a crowd had started to form near the offices and they wanted a backup to keep it at bay.

Without knowledge of his mission there, I asked him what was happening. He declined to answer me and put on his mask before he boarded his car and drove off at high speed.

Within a short while, more than a dozen officers arrived at the site and kept the crowd at bay. Meanwhile, the team of the raiders was inside the printing press with some burning newspapers and destroying property.

Mr Otieno and Nation Media Group (NMG) photographer Joseph Mathenge informed me on phone they were already inside the premise witnessing the destruction. I called a colleague at NMG Dominic Wabala and asked him to come there.

It was then approaching 4am and the raiders, whom we later learnt were police officers, left in a huff in their vehicles together with their backup team.