Yes, eCitizen was hacked, ICT CS Owalo says

**ICT CS Eliud Owalo before the National Assembly Communication Committee on April 13, 2023.** [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Information, Communication, and Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary Eluid Owalo has confirmed that the eCitizen platform was indeed hacked.

Speaking during an interview with Spice FM on Thursday, July 27, Owalo said that the digital platform was hacked recently and that they are addressing the matter.

According to him, the hackers began by slowing the system down and then tried to break into it but were unable to.

“Yes, the eCitizen platform was hacked and we are addressing it. They tried jamming the system by making more than ordinary requests to the system. However, no data has been accessed or lost,” stated Owalo.

CS OWALO: There was a cyber attack on the eCitizen platform but no data was accessed or lost.

Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communication and the Digital Economy, Eliud Owalo, in #TheSituationRoom

.@EliudOwalo @MoICTKenya pic.twitter.com/aLoziZYdzB
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— SpiceFM (@SpiceFMKE) July 27, 2023

He also added that the government was prepared for an attack of this degree and had put in place measures to address it and continue to improve its cyber security.

“We cannot stop digitizing our services because of hackers. What we did because we had foreseen this, is to establish and operationalize the office of the data commissioner and anchored it on law to ensure they execute the mandate of data privacy on one hand and data security on the other,” he said.

“We are not just coming up with instant remedial solutions to address the current attack but we are ensuring that around this digitalization space, we will build an elaborate risk mitigation framework for purposes of sustainable digitalization," he added.

The issue with the eCitizen platform began a few days ago when Kenyans tried to access various government services but were unable to.

Some are still experiencing a challenge in logging into the system while others have the issue settled on their end.