The official website of the President of the Republic of Kenya has been compromised, with its homepage defaced by hackers who posted messages targeting President William Ruto and demanded a Bitcoin ransom.
A spot check by Vantage Ke on Saturday, July 18, found that the official content on president.go.ke had been replaced with derogatory messages directed at the Head of State.
The defaced page contained allegations against President Ruto, a Bitcoin wallet address and a demand for payment, with the attackers threatening to publish unspecified information if the ransom was not paid.
"This message is the third time for you; before we leak everything about you. Do a payment of 5 bitcoins to the Bitcoin wallet...If you want peace before 6 o’clock this evening," the message on the homepage read.
State House thereafter confirmed it was aware of the breach, adding that its ICT team was working to resolve the issue.
Based on current exchange rates, meeting the hackers' demand would require approximately Ksh41,337,872.40, with one Bitcoin trading at about Ksh8,267,574.48.
The attackers also replaced the website's banner with a message mentioning three individuals, although the official State House branding remained visible in the background.
The incident has renewed concerns over the security of government digital systems, as authorities have yet to establish whether the attack was limited to the website's homepage or extended to internal back-end infrastructure.
This is not the first time Kenyan government websites have fallen victim to cyberattacks.
In November last year, a coordinated cyberattack affected websites belonging to several ministries and state agencies, including the Ministries of Health, Education, Labour, Environment, ICT, Tourism and Interior, as well as State House.
Hackers defaced the affected websites by replacing official content with unauthorised messages, leaving several government portals inaccessible.
The attack disrupted key online public services, while some of the compromised websites displayed extremist slogans and other unauthorised material.
The Ministry of Defence and the National Treasury were among the few institutions reported to have escaped the coordinated cyberattack.
