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Kenya’s official State House website has been hacked, with the cyber attackers demanding a ransom of five bitcoins, worth approximately KSh 41 million.
The website, president.go.ke, had its official content replaced with demeaning messages directed at President William Ruto.
The hackers also posted a cryptocurrency wallet address and warned that unspecified information would be released if the ransom was not paid.
This is not the first time cybercriminals have targeted Kenyan government websites or breached official online platforms.
The cyberattack was confirmed by the Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communications and the Digital Economy, William Kabogo. He said government cybersecurity teams were responding to the incident.
“Our cyber team is on top of the situation,” Kabogo said.
State House also confirmed that its Information and Communication Technology team was working to contain the breach and restore the website.
By Saturday afternoon, the defaced homepage had been removed and the website taken offline, but services had not yet been restored.
When News Central checked at about 11:54 a.m. on Sunday, the website remained inaccessible, displaying the message: “Maintenance in progress. We will be back soon.”
Authorities did not immediately disclose whether any government data had been accessed or compromised. It also remained unclear whether the attack was limited to the website’s public-facing pages or had affected internal government systems.
The incident has renewed concerns about cybersecurity at Kenyan government institutions, which have experienced several attempted and successful cyberattacks in recent years.
