ICT Cabinet Secretary, Eliud Owalo, on Thursday confirmed that the government’s e-citizen platform had suffered a cyber attack, disrupting its operations and key services offered by the government’s online portal.

Mr. Owalo disclosed that the hackers, known as “Anonymous Sudan” were responsible for the attack.

According to Owalo, the hackers’ attempt did not result in any unauthorized access to or loss of data from the platform.

“To me, this is not strange because the cyber attack is predominant across the world but there was an attack and we are already addressing that”, he said.

According to Owalo, the hackers tried jamming the system by making more than ordinary requests into the system whose goal was to slow it down. This sort of cyber attack is known as a DDOS, a distributed denial-of-service attack. It is often used, as it has been in this case, to disrupt the normal function of online services.

Cyber attack on Kenyan government services: eCitizen down

The eCitizen platform provides a comprehensive one-stop shop with over 5,000 government services from various ministries, county governments, and agencies.

The primary objective of the platform is to simplify and digitize government services, ensuring greater accessibility and convenience for users.

Cyber attack on Kenyan government services: a return to visa on arrival

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on Thursday made the decision to grant visas to foreign travellers upon their arrival, in response to a hacking attempt on the country’s e-Citizen portal.

The Ministry issued an advisory to all Diplomatic Missions and International Organizations in Kenya, acknowledging the existing challenge with the government e-Citizen platform.

Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei additionally advised all airlines to allow foreign travelers destined for Kenya to board flights without prior visa requirements.

“The Ministry avails itself of this opportunity to renew to all Diplomatic Missions and International Organizations the assurance of its highest consideration,” Sing’oei said.

It remains to be seen how long this return to manual visa distribution will last.